Many a Slip Between the Cup and the Lip
by U got 2 get down 2 get up
Summary: Full summary is inside. In a nutshell, Annabeth, Percy's two cousins, and other friends try to figure out why Percy is so skittish and reserved. Just when they find out, Percy is whisked away by a dark and mysterious group of demigods. Chasing after the love of her life, we follow Annabeth and friends as they chase their Seaweed Brain. Of course we get into Percy's head too...
1. Chapter 1

**Hello. As I said on my profile, I'm not a huge talker. Mostly Percabeth but there are some Jasper and Frazel moments. Most characters from the Percy Jackson series are in here, as well as the Heros of Olympus. Here's the summary,**

** Annabeth Chase is curious about a new student in school named Percy Jackson. He seems alright, with a gentle, calm demeanor and a soft smile. He usually hangs out with his cousins, Thalia and Nico, during school. Percy is pretty normal to everyone else, but Annabeth is not everyone else. She picks up on things that everyone, besides his cousins, don't notice. For example, why does he flinch when someone touches him? Why does he never wear anything but long pants and sweatshirts? Why does he always keep his head down in the hallways? Why does he speak so softly? Annabeth wants to know why, but Percy isn't about to just let anyone know his secret. Not even his two cousins. All three, Nico Thalia and Annabeth, want to find out and with a little help from Percy's long-time friend, maybe they can find out.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any of it's characters. All rights belong to Rick Riordan.**

** Annabeth's** **POV**

Mondays. Doesn't everyone love them? You get to go to school and see your friends. You get to find out what your going to be doing all week. You get assigned new projects to work on and new sheets to fill out. Everyone loves that, right? Of course! The one thing I don't like is that you have to get up early. Ugh, no one likes that.

"Annabeth! Daddy said that you have to get up now!" An annoying voice screamed at me from behind my door. I cracked my eye open an inch and let out a groan.

"Bobby, go away!" Ok not the nicest thing to say to your little brother, but hey, I hated mornings. Besides, why was Bobby waking me up on a Sunday?

"Annie, daddy said to get up now!"

"Don't call me Annie! Besides, a few more minutes can't hurt." I said laying my head down on my pillow again.

"Yeah it can. It can make you late for school!" _Wait, what? School?_ I snapped my eyes open and glanced at my calender. Yep, Monday April 21. Dang!

"Right! Coming, coming. Just give me a few minutes! What time is it now?" I asked, scrambling around my room trying to get together my clothes and toiletries together.

"Um... it's 6:22." Dang it! That gave me 38 minutes to shower, get dressed and have breakfast. _Hmm... might have to skip breakfast._

"Thanks, Bobby. Tell dad I'm up, okay?"

"Yeah, whatever Annie." I could hear his feet racing down the stairs after he used my nickname.

"Don't call me ANNIE!"  
_ Line Break

The only good thing about the bus, is that it gives me time to think. At the moment, the major question swirling around my head was, why had I been so disoriented this morning? I mean, usually I'm pretty good at keeping track of time, but I was a whole day behind. That doesn't happen a lot for me. I think backwards through out my weekend, trying to find anything I did that would've messed up my clock. I went to bed at the normal 10' o clock on Friday. I went for my morning jog on Saturday. I meant my best friend Thalia Grace and her cousin, Nico, for lunch. I went home, ate dinner and watched a movie with Bobby and Matthew before reading till 10. I basically repeated the same thing on Sunday, only I had lunch with my family at my house, instead. What made this weekend different from the others? Oh right! Thalia had talked to me on the phone all night about something. What was it again?

I puzzled over this until I got to Goode High. I walked with the other sophomores to the lockers. _Who had Thalia been talking about so much on the phone last night? _I hoped I find out soon, I hated not knowing things.

"Annabeth!" Speak of the devil. I turned around to see Thalia's electric blue eye staring right at me. _Good, I'll finally find out._

"Hey, Thalia! How was your weekend?"

"To freaking long! I've waited for this day since I was like, five! I can't believe I'm actually gonna go to the same school with him after 10 freaking years!" _Him? Did she finally get a crush? Wait a crush since she was five? It must be, I've never seen her so pumped on a Monday._ Just then Nico made his way towards us.

"Thalia, have you seen him yet? I haven't spotted him all morning. Heck, I don't even know who he has for homeroom!" Nico looks at me. "Oh hey, Annabeth. I guess Thalia probably filled you in on what's going on right?" _Okay, well I guess not a crush if Nico is just as excited to see 'him'._

"She did, actually. I just sorta forgot." I gave them a sheepish grin.

"What? Annie, how could you forget everything I told you? I was talking for like, 3 freaking hours!"

"I'm sorry! I just didn't really catch much since it was 1 or 2 in the morning!" Thalia sighs before taking my arm and leading me to the front doors where a few students were still trickling in. I took a swift glance at the clock. _Oh good, only 7:25. Still got 20 minutes before first period._

"Thalia, why are we standing at the front doors?" I ask, crossing my arms over my grey T-shirt.

"Well if you listened, you'd know exactly why!" She replied, obviously still a little miffed about my lack of listening.

"I'm sorry, okay? It was really late and I don't function very well that late." I look up to see not her usual annoyance when stuff like this happens, in her eyes, but excitement.

"Okay, listen this time." She told me, her eyes flitting back to the front lawn every few seconds. "My cousin is moving here from Rhode Island. I have only seen him like a handful of times since I moved here when I was 5. Even though I've only seen him so much, we are really great friends. He's even good friends with Mr. Anti-social over there." She said pointing to where Nico was standing, looking out at the front lawn. Surprisingly he only rolled his eyes at her. Then continued to scan the grounds.

"Okay." I said trying to spur her forward since she also seemed to be content to stare out at the road.

"Right, anyway. So he's a really great guy and he's going to transfer to Goode today. I can't wait to seem him!" She said with a giddy smile on her face. _Wow, giddy smile. I never thought THAT was going to happen. This guy must have a really big effect on her._ I turned to look at the clock. _7:35. This guy better get here soon, or I'm going to class._ I thought.  
_ Line Break

"Hey, Thals, if you don't mind too much, I'm going to go to class." I had been waiting for Thalia and Nico's cousin until 7:37. Which is a record for me.

"Yeah yeah, sure, Annie." Thalia replied, never tearing her eyes from the road. I roll my eyes at the name.

"Don't call me Annie." I call over my shoulder as I head to my first class. _Ah history._

__ _Line Break

As I walk into my history class, I look around at the familiar surroundings. The old book shelf at the corner of the room that no one uses. The rows of desks facing the old chalk board. Yeah, _chalkboard_. Our history teacher, Mr. Smith, is very old-fashioned. I swear, if he could still whack us with rulers when we misbehaved, he would do it with a smile. I sighed and took my seat at the front of the class.

In the next few minutes the rest of the students trickled in, taking their seats and pulling out their homework. My friend Piper sat down on my right. Piper is a very pretty girl, but she plays down her looks. She is half Cherokee so she has beautiful brown hair and tan skin. She has a huge crush on Thalia's brother, Jason. I guess Jason is good-looking. He has blond spiky hair, cut in a military form. He has blue eyes like Thalia, but that's pretty much the only thing they share besides their dad. You see, Thalia is a punk. No other words for it. She loves heavy metal and rock, which to me, just sounds like a bunch of screaming toddlers with pots and pans. She wears a black leather jacket every day, with some outfit with spikes. Her hair is cut short with spikes everywhere and she wears heavy mascara and black eyeliner. Jason on the other hand, is the little angle. He has a perfect attendance record, perfect grades (enough to rival mine, though I still crush him) and a perfect personality. He even has the _looks_ to prove it. With his blond hair and blue eyes, he's got a ton of girls chasing him. I don't really know him enough to judge him, but he seems like an okay guy. Especially since Piper likes him. (Piper is not someone who goes after shallow kids)

BRING! BRING! I am ripped from my thoughts by the bell. Mr. Smith walks in carry an armful of books. As he sets them down on the desk he announces that our next unit is on Ancient Greece. _Oh well that's good, I'll ace this with no problem._ I thought.

"Okay, class, please take your seats." Mr. Smith clears his throat and begins a lecture on our new unit, Ancient Greece. He informs us about the geographical features and the dangers they presented to the ancient Greeks. I readied my pencil, then let the knowledge envelope me. Volcano eruption... end of first society... trade along the sea... master ship builders and sailors... Sparta... Troy... Mt. Olympus... mythology and religion... Orion... olives?... Athens... Perseus...

"And here are your textbooks. Treat them well, I expect them in perfect condition by the end of the year." I look up from my notes. Mr. Smith was passing out thick green textbooks down the rows. Once I had gotten mine and passed the others to the people behind me I looked at the cover. It said, "Ciaten Ecerge". _Stupid dyslexia,_ I thought in frustration. You have no idea how hard it is to keep at the head of the class with the words you try to read flying off the page and doing back flips in the air. Ugh. Thankfully, if I concentrate hard enough on the words, I can make them out... eventually. It might not be a great method, but it's better than Thalia and Nico who also have dyslexia. They just get frustrated and start throwing books around. In fact, all my friends have dyslexia, Piper, Reyna, Thalia, Nico, Hazel, Leo, even perfect Jason.

"Okay class, have a good day. Make sure to read pages 228-244." Mr. Smith said as we made our way to the door. _Yeah... thanks._ I thought. _Okay, next stop... Greek._ (The language)

_ Line Break

After five other periods of learning I was exhausted. Thankfully 6th period was my lunch and 8th was my break. The rest of the day should be pretty easy. I walked to the cafeteria, anxious to see my friends since I only had Piper in history and Hazel in Language Arts. THe rest of my classes were filled with stuck up popular people.

Lunch at Goode is pretty average. Yes, there are the occasional lunches where you don't know if the clump of green stuff is supposed to be vegetables or meat, but there are some nice lunches too. Personally I always get the Greek salad with extra olives. (Don't ask about the olives, I just like them for some reason) Today had a particularly long line for salad. I sighed and got on the back of the line, trying to be patient.

As soon as I got my food I walked out to our little round picnic table my friends and I always sit at. _Hmm.. I wonder where Thalia and Nico are._ I thought as I sat down next to their vacant seats.

"Hey, Annabeth." Hazel, Nico's sister, greated me kindly from across the table. Frank gave me a sweet smile and wave from Hazel's left. _I'm so happy they finally got together!_ I thought. (They had liked each other for quite sometime.)

"What's going on, Annie?" Leo asked.

"Hi, Annabeth." Piper said sitting between Jason and Leo. Jason merely waved at me and smiled.

"Hey, guys. Where's Thalia, Nico, and Reyna?" I asked just noticing her empty seat next to Frank.

"Reyna's at an appointment today." Hazel supplied.

"And Thalia and Nico are probably helping out their cousin." Piper finnished.

"Oh yeah, I heard about him. Percy, right?" Leo asked looking over at Piper. The whole table looked at Piper, too.

"Um yeah, he just moved here from Rhode Island, I think."

"Is he a demigod, too?" We all gasped at Leo's casual reference to what we are. You see, Piper, Jason, Thalia, Nico, Reyna, Leo, Frank, Hazel and I are all demigods.(Half human, half Greek god) Don't get too excited, it's not to great. For one, we always have monsters out to get us. We can never use any electronics connected to the internet, though we still do once in a while in an emergency. (We prefer Iris Messaging when contacting other demigods) Our only safe haven is Camp Half Blood and Camp Jupiter, which really aren't so bad, but they can get a little crowded. We have to keep our identities secret all the time, which means putting up with bullies and snobby jerks. Demigods also have ADHD and dyslexia. Yeah, not so great. Sometimes our parents even send us on quests. Speaking of parents, my mother is Athena, goddess of wisdom and war. Piper is daughter of Aphrodite and is a very powerful charmspeaker. Leo is the son of Hephaestus, and one of the only fire users. Thalia's father is Zues. Jason's father is the Roman side of Zues, Jupiter. Frank, Hazel and Reyna all also have Roman gods as parents. Reyna's mother is Bellona, Roman goddess of war. Frank's father is Mars, god of war and bloodshed, while Hazel's father is Pluto, god of the underworld as well as precious gems and metals. Nico is the son of Hades, the Greek form of Pluto. Like Jason and Thalia, Hazel and Nico are also related, although their father was in different aspects of himself when they were sired. (Zues/Jupiter, Hades/Pluto)

"Don't say it so loud! Someone could hear you!" Frank said.

"Well, I was just wondering, cause he's Thalia and Nico's cousin. And I suppose that would make him Hazel and Jason's cousin as well." He did have a point.

"I don't know him all that well, honestly. I've only seen pictures once in a while, cause I was a Wilderness School since last year, remember?" That's right, Jason just got back from Wilderness School, the place he's been going since he was five.

"I also don't know him very well. I was stuck in the underworld until for 40 years or so." Hazel explained. "Thalia and my brother are the closest to him."

"Well I want to know if we just found another demigod to joke with. Mortals are so dimwitted." Leo grinned.

"It's to risky to just ask him," Jason reasoned. "We'll just have to watch him. I know Thalia would tell me if she knew, and so far, nothing."

"I'm with Jason. I can ask Nico, but I don't think he knows either. The best we can do is watch and listen."

"Well do you know how he's related to Thalia and Nico? If it was like, great grandparents, then he couldn't-" I was cut off by Leo.

"Hey guys, look who's here." We all turned to see Thalia and Nico walking towards us, joking around with some guy. The guy had messy-but cute- raven black hair and tan skin. He was wearing jeans and a green sweatshirt. He must've been about 5' 10 or so. A pretty good height for a sophomore.

"What's up guys?" Thalia greeted us as she, Nico and that guy reached our table. "I'd like you to meet my cousin, Percy!" Everyone looked at him. He seemed to be a little uncomfortable with the stares and gave a small smile.

"Uh, hello."

"So you're the cousin Thalia's been going on and on about. I've been looking forward to meeting you. My name's Hazel." Hazel said gently, sticking out her hand. Percy took it slowly.

"Hi, Hazel. I'm Percy, but based on what you just said, you already knew that." His voice was soft, but had an underlying current of power.

"To that, you are correct. This is Frank, my boyfriend, Piper, Jason, Leo and Annabeth." She introduced us. We all smiled and waved. I saw a spark of recognition when Percy saw Piper and Jason. When Percy looked at me, I could see his eyes. Wow. They were gorgeous! Green and slight traces of blue swirled around, catching the light. I was a little shocked to see how full of sadness and pain was just below the surface, but it was gone before I could really analyze it all. _Hmm, maybe it was never actually there to begin with._ I thought as I saw him smile gently at everyone. _Wow, he does have a great smile. So warm and caring. And I could get lost in his eyes... those swirling pools of beautiful sea green... with specks of blue... catches the light..._

"Annabeth!" I was snapped out of my daydream by Thalia's loud voice.

"What?"

"Are you going to say hi, or just keep on staring at Percy's eyes?" She asked, smirking a little at the end. I felt myself blush.

"I wasn't staring at his eyes!" I defended. "I was merely trying to... er... um..." I tried to think of an excuse, but really, what excuses are there for staring at a person's eyes?

"Uh-huh. I think Annie's in lo-" I jabbed Thalia in the ribs before she could finnish the sentence. The rest of the table laughed at our antics, including Percy who was seated in between Thalia and Frank. _Wow, he even has a nice laugh..._

"So, Percy. How are you liking New York?" Jason asked. "I'm also your cousin by the way." Percy smiled.

"Yeah, I could guess. You guys have the same eyes and the same authority." _Nice observation, I didn't even notice they both had authority in their voices._" New York's really cool. There are some really cool buildings, and a hotdog stand like, on every street." Leo saluted at that. "It also has a lot of skate board parks." Thalia and Frank grinned at that one.

"Where are you staying?" Piper asked.

"I'm staying at the Bramford."**(I'm making it an apartment building in this story)** We all looked at him.

"Um.. dude, isn't that place like... I don't know haunted or something?" Leo asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Supposedly, it has good rent though. Really cheap." Percy replies nonchalantly eating his pizza. Thalia looks over at him worriedly. _Wow she must really care for this guy._

"Perce, that place has had some pretty horrific stuff done inside it's walls."

"Yeah, not to mention that there was a murderer supposedly staying there last week. Police don't even know if he's out yet." Frank chips in. We all look at Percy with worry. That's not a good place to be right now.

"Plus, that place reeks of death. Some are pretty recent, too!" Nico then slaps his hands over his mouth. _Dang it, Nico! Why do you have to use Hades senses now?_ I glared at him, as did the rest of the table.

"Hold on, you can _smell_ death?" Percy asked, leaning forward towards Nico.

"No, what? Of course not! That's impossible!" Nico tried to cover.

"What Nico means by 'reeks' is that it has a very depressing history. Nico's weird and sorta emo, don't pay attention to him when he gets like this." I said. Percy looked over to me, eyes flashing with a strange emotion that I didn't catch.

"If you say so, I guess." He didn't sound very convinced, but let the subject drop.

"So Percy, what's your schedule?" Piper asked, using her charmspeak to clear the air of suspicion she must've felt coming from Percy. _I guess her feelings power thingy is useful._ My eyes widened a little. _I did_ _not__ just say 'thingy'. No, no, no, no! Oh gods no! A daughter of Athena using the word, 'thingy'! Mom would kill me if she ever found out!_ I turned my attention back to my friends, they were interrogating Percy. That's basically how we spent the rest of lunch.

_Line Break

Finally! Free period! I walked out of school, intent on doing my homework under my little tree at the back of the school. As I turned the corner, I could see a lone figure already seated underneath the tree. When I got closer, I recognized Percy. He was sitting cross-legged with a pile of books to his left. His head was bent over a page of math problems, his hair falling into his eyes. Percy has not noticed me yet, so I took that opportunity to really look at him. His hair was a dark, shiny black, a little longer than Jason and Frank's military cuts, but not quite as wild as Leo's hair. (Even though it was still pretty messy.) His skin was tanner than I had first thought, a nice sea tan. Just when I had started thinking of his eyes for the millionth time that day, he looked up.

"Oh hi, Annabeth. What's up?"

"Um, hey, Percy. I was just coming here to do my homework." I explained, nervously scuffing my converse in the dirt. _Why does he make me so nervous? _I thought.

"Oh, did I take your spot? I'm sorry, I didn't know you usually came here." He started to gather up his things.

"No, no! I wasn't asking you to leave! Actually, I was wondering if I could join you." I said a little to quickly. He looked up at me with a quizzical expression.

"Join me doing homework?" He cracked a goofy smile I had only seen when he was with his cousins. "Sure, why not? I could use some company." I smiled and walked over to where he was sitting.

"So what homework do you have?" He asked politely.

"Math, Language Arts, Greek and History." I look over at his gigantic stack of books. "What do you have?"

"Language Arts, Greek, Math, Biology, History and some make-up work to help me catch up." Percy looked sadly down at his homework. _Hmm, his upper lip sticks out when he pouts. That's kinda cute..._

"Don't worry, it'll get easier once you adjust and get caught up." I assure him

"Thanks."

We spent the rest of the time doing our homework in quiet. It was quite peaceful, working side by side in comfortable silence. I didn't feel any pressure to fill in every moment with pointless chatter, or the need to monitor my expressions, either. There was just something different about Percy. I wasn't sure if it was his calm, gentle yet powerful demeanor. Or the fact that he wasn't trying to get attention like every other sophomore.(Including most of my demigod friends) He was simply a restful, gentle, undemanding person.

"So, do you like coming here?" I asked. Then I mentally slapped myself. _He's went here once and now I'm asking if he likes coming here! What's wrong with me today? _Thankfully Percy didn't notice anything weird in my question, and if he did he didn't comment.

"Yeah, it's nice. Really peaceful. If you don't mind me barging onto your turf, I'd like to do my homework here more often." He said, looking over at me.

"Of course! It's not like it's _my_ tree." I said. For some reason my heart fluttered when I thought of spending more time with Percy. _Weird..._


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you for reading my story, I promise to post as much as I can. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any characters from it, all rights belong to Rick Riordan**

**Annabeth's POV**

"Hey, Thalia?" I had to scream over the loud music that filled the car. Honestly, did she _want_ to go deaf? Thankfully I normally didn't have to hitch a ride with under-age drivers, but since I had Architecture Club after school on Mondays I had to get a ride home somehow. Don't ask how Thalia got a car, it's a long, strange story that includes a sales person, the Mist and Thalia's weapon, Aegis.

"What?" She gave me a quick glance before her eyes settled on the road again. _Smart move, I do want to live long enough to get home._

"I just wanted to ask a question about Percy." I could see her snort.

"Ask away, though I'm warning you, I don't know a whole lot."

"Could you turn down the music for a second? It's hard to talk over it!" She sighed but did as I asked. _Oh good, now I can hear myself think._

"What is it?"

"Well, what do you know about Percy?" I asked, trying to glean as much information about him as I could. I didn't know why exactly, but I wanted to know as much about him as I could. I wanted to understand him and get to know him. I watched as Thalia grimaced.

"Not as much as a cousin _should _know." Her voice held a distinct, bitter edge. She sighed."He was born in New York City, actually. But his mom moved to Rhode Island after a few years of fighting with her husband, Gabe Ugliono."

"Is that Percy's father?"

"No, Percy was sired by someone high up there, if you know what I mean." Thalia sighed, she seemed to be doing that a lot lately. "Anyway, Percy's sire ran off and was apparently "lost at sea". Sally, Percy's mother, married Gabe when Percy was really young. Who knows why, that man is a pig." Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "After a few years of fighting with Gabe, Sally took Percy and moved to Rhode Island and since they couldn't afford a divorce they were still technically married. Percy and Sally were happy up there."

"Why did he move back if he was happy in Rhode Island, then?" _Not that I'm complaining..._ "Is he staying with Sally?" For the first time during this conversation, Thalia looked pained.

"No he isn't staying with his mom. Sally was getting more and more depressed over the years. I don't know why, the few times I met her she was always full of life and love." Thalia's grip tightened on the steering wheel. "She was driving a little crazy one night, like 125 mph crazy." I cringed a little at the thought. "Percy, thank the gods, wasn't in the car with her at the time, so he was alone when Sally and another car crashed. She died on impact, while the other driver only received a couple cuts and bruises. As I mentioned before, Gabe and Sally were still married, so Percy was sent to live with that pig."

"But he only moved here recently, right?" I asked, thinking about how he just started school today.

"Actually, no. Percy has been living with Gabe for the past few years, he just went to boarding schools and such. Neither Gabe or Percy, every really liked the other, it was always better to keep them apart. That's why Gabe sent Percy away to different schools."

"Oh, why didn't you tell me Percy has been living in NYC for the past few years?" I watched as Thalia's pained face became even more pained.

"I didn't know. Percy just told me he was transferring to Goode last Friday." Her voice was quiet, almost a whisper.

"I'm sure he had his reasons." I tried to reassure her. The car stopped and I looked up to see my apartment building. I got out.

"Thanks for the ride. And," I paused. "Thanks, for telling me about Percy, Thals." Her pained expression turned back to her usual smirk that basically yelled, "I am a Punk. Mess with me and you will spend a week in the hospital"

"No problem, Annie." She said as she pulled out into the street. She waved good-bye then sped off to her own apartment. I turned back to my apartment with a sigh, _when am I going to understand Percy?_

_Line Break

"ANNABETH!" Matthew's, one of my little brothers, voice echoed up the stairs to my bedroom. "DADDY SAID IT WAS TIME FOR DINNER!"

"OKAY! I'LL BE DOWN IN A SECOND!" I yelled back. I neatly stacked my textbooks on top of each other on my desk, I hated messes. I quickly shuffled my papers into order, then walked down the stairs to the kitchen.

"Hello, Annabeth. Dinner's on the table, wash up and then we can eat." My stepmom said from the kitchen. You see my stepmom and I haven't had the greatest history, she didn't like the fact that I could quite literally attract monsters to our front door. **(Annabeth did not run away this time)**My dad stood up for me, and in a few months she learned to accept it. We aren't exactly best friends, not even eight years later, but we are making progress.

"Okay." _Keep it short and sweet, then there will be less of a chance of a fight._

"ANNIE!" Bobby and Matthew come running towards me. I ginned at them and bent down to give them a hug. No matter how annoying they are, I love my little brothers. "Come in the dining room so we can eat, I'm starving!" Matthew exclaimed turning around and leading me by the hand to the dining room.

The bowls of food were passed around. I looked down at my plate of beef, salad, grilled asparagus and gravy before digging into my food. As we ate we discussed light subjects. Matthew and Bobby told us of their adventure on their playground at the elementary school, dad talked about his job and new things he want's to try out. I wasn't really paying attention to the topics until my dad asked me a question.

"Hey, Annabeth. I heard that Goode had a new student who's also a sophomore. Have you met him?" Everyone at the table turned to look at me.

"Yeah, I did. His name's Percy. He's actually Thalia and Nico's cousin. Which would make him also Hazel and Jason's cousin as well." I added as an after thought.

"What's he like?" Bobby asked from the seat to my left.

"Well he's quite gentle and from what I could tell, very kind and good-spirited."

"That's good, we need a few respectable men in the world today." My stepmom said from across the table. I smiled at her.

"Yeah, Percy's a good guy."

_Line Break

Right before I fell asleep that night I had one thought. _I will figure out who Percy is._

_Line Break **Percy's POV**

Walking home was like marching to your death. For me at least. Anyone else, anyone _normal_ would open their front door, hug there loving parents and eat a snack when they got home. If you're one of those kids, don't take it for granted. You get to live in a comfortable home, with parents who love you and make you dinner every night. Parents who tuck you in, and whisper, 'Goodnight, I love you', before you fall asleep. Parents who make sure your safe and sound before themselves, parents who would give their lives up to save you. I smiled as I walked home through dirty alley ways. _  
_

I look up at Bramford. Yeah, Bramford. Let me say this once, it is not haunted! That film, Rosemary's Baby, or something like that, gave it a bad name. It was a film! I swear to the gods, it is not haunted! Oh yeah, gods. You see I'm a demigod, half Greek god, half human. Yippe. Demigod's lives are never good. We always end up dying in some gruesome way. Of course being the son of Poseidon, one of the big three, isn't helping my case. My 'scent' is much stronger than regular demigods, so I attract more monsters. Then again, monsters aren't my biggest worries when it comes to survival. Gabe is.

I shook my head to get rid of those thoughts. I didn't need those kind of things in my head, not when I'm about to face him and his poker buddies in the next few minutes anyway. I took a deep breath, _you can do this_, and opened the door. I walked up the stairs to my apartment, ready for the beating to begin.

"Hey, punk." An all to familiar voice rang out from the living room. I looked up from the floor to where Gabe was sitting by the poker table. He had four other 'people' (_more like walruses) _were sitting around the poker table, drinking bear and smoking cigarettes. Disgusting. "Got money?" I shook my head, it's better to not say anything unless you have to. Gabe's eyes narrowed. He leaned over to his friend, Eddie. Gabe whispered something to Eddie that gave Eddie an odd gleam. Well it would be odd to anyone else, not me. I knew what that meant. As soon as I saw two of Gabe's friends get up and walk towards me, I knew I was going to get a beating. This was pretty normal, but I still wasn't used to five people beating me. I stepped back, trying in vain to run past them to my room. I knew it was useless, but I had to try.

"Gabe, please don't. I swear I don't have any money!" I begged.

"Well, punk, you're out o' luck. I need 15 bucks to play, and I ain't got no 15 bucks." His beady eyes narrowed at me. "If you got no money, then you aren't any use to me, are ya?"

"I make minimum wage at a candy store, of course I don't have an extra 15 dollars! I spend all my money paying rent and getting food for you!" I blurted out. I mentally slapped myself, _never talk back. _

Gabe's eyes sparked with anger. He laughed cruelly, making me shudder. I know, I know, I'm a demigod, I'm not supposed to be afraid of a mortal. Well guess what, I am! I don't know why, but the fact that he killed my mother in cold blood probably isn't helping my case. "Punk, you just made a big mistake." He said, slurring his speech. He laughed again and his buddies rushed towards me, pinning my arms down. _Please God, help me._


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello again. This is fun. To clear something up, that could be misunderstood, Percy knows he's a demigod, but doesn't know his cousins or friends are. Annabeth and her friends know they are demigods, but don't know Percy is. Percy is also abused, if you haven't figured that out yet. Ok, so that's it. Everyone is pretty much the same age, and they're all sophomores. Done!**

**Annabeth's**** POV**

Tuesday was just like Monday. Sort of. I still got up at the same time, rode the same bus to school and turned in homework. But things got a little more interesting at lunch, the first time I would see Percy. I still hadn't gotten over the fact that I was so intrigued by him when I had only known him for a day. I didn't know if it was because of the sadness and pain lingering just below the surface of his beautiful green eyes, or the way he would talk so softly it was like he was trying not to be heard. It was like he was trying to go unnoticed, which didn't really work since he had the body of an avid swimmer, the tan of a sea man, the hair of a raven's feathers, the smile of an angel, and the personality of well, Percy. He was sometimes shy, but I could see some humor and sarcasm peak through his calm, quiet demeanor. Today at lunch is a good example.

"Dude, are you like, half fish? How can you be so freaking fast?" Leo asked Percy from across the table. Percy got a weird look in his eyes for a second, but then it was gone. _Styx, why can't I see what it is? _I thought, trying again to decipher Percy's alien expressions.

"Who is half fish?" Nico asked walking to our table with a lunch tray. He sat down and look at us weirdly.

"That guy!" Leo pointed his index finger to Percy. "He's got like, superhuman speed in the water. One second he's jumping in, the next he's on the other side of the pool." Piper smacked Leo's hand away from Percy, muttering how rude it was to point.

Percy cracked a smile."Hey, it's not my fault that I swam in the ocean almost everyday when I lived in Rhode Island." He smirked for the first time. "Plus I don't spend al my time looking at blueprints."

"Yeah, but not even like, an Olympic athlete can probably beat you!" Leo exclaimed.

Percy calming took a bite out of a small granola bar he brought for lunch. "I doubt that." Jason looked like he was about to ask a question, but was interrupted by Piper.

"Oh joy, here comes Reyna." I rolled my eyes, Piper and Reyna had been having a fight over the years about who gets Jason. Not to be rude or anything, but I honestly don't know why they fought so hard for him. They were almost drawing blood. Jason, in the end, chose Piper (good choice) over Reyna. There is still some left over tension between Reyna and Piper, but it has diminished... slightly.

"Who?" _Of course, Percy has never seen Reyna before. She was at a doctors appointment yesterday._ The rest of the table seemed to be realizing the same thing.

"Oh sorry, Perce! I totally forgot to tell you about Reyna." Thalia said. "Reyna is that girl with a purple shirt on. She's really cool, but don't get on her bad side. She's even worse than me sometimes." Percy's eyes widened slightly at that.

As Reyna made her way over to us her eyes landed on Percy. She had a quizzical look on her face, but there was something underneath it, too. I couldn't exactly tell what it was, _Man I'm losing my touch._

"Hello, guys." Reyna greeted us as she reached our table and sat down in an empty chair between Frank and Thalia. We responded with waves and smiles.(In Piper's case a stony stare.) Reyna turned to Percy who looked uncomfortable."Hello, my name's Reyna." She raised her hand. Percy took it and shook it gently. I got this weird stab of emotion in my gut when Reyna kept his hand for a second longer, before letting it drop. _What was that?_

"I'm Percy."

"Are you new here?" She asked. I didn't know about anyone else, but that line sounded _dangerously _close to, 'Do you come here often?'

Percy nodded, his dark hair falling into his eyes."I just started yesterday."

"Where you from?" _Hello! Personal question!_ I thought with a frustration I didn't understand.

"I'm from Rhode Island."

"Why did you move her-" Reyna was cut short by Thalia.

"Relax, Reyna, we already went through the interrogation process."

"I was just curious."

"Percy will tell you if he wants to, he shouldn't feel pressured into answering you." I said, surprising myself with my force.

"It's okay, guys." Percy said looking at all of us like ticking bombs.(Well okay, Reyna, Thalia and me) "I moved here because my mom died. I had no where else to go besides Ga-.. er my stepfather's place here in NYC." _I wonder why he stumbled over the word 'stepfather'._

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Reyna said, a little too much emotion in her voice. She reached her hand out, but he just smiled and waved her off.

"It's fine, she's in a better place now." He explained simply. An awkward silence fell over the table until Leo yelled out.

"Stupid sandwich toothpick!" He started yelling in Spanish.**(Not trying to be racist, it said in the books that Leo switched to Spanish sometimes when he got upset)** I'm not to fluent in it so all I heard was, Styx, stupid, pointless and something that would probably offend all toothpicks across the nation.

"Calm down, Leo!" Percy, the first to get out of the awkward tension, laughed. "It's just a toothpick!"

"Toothpick's can be deadly, man!"

Percy laughed again, then smirked a little."Only if you're unobservant enough." Leo smirked back and did the 'I'm watching you' gesture. Percy just smiled innocently.

"Hey, so what do you have nest, Perce?" Thalia asked.

"Um... looks like Greek. I just got transferred into core class 7. Why?" _I'm in Core 7... cool._

"Oh just wondering if we had the same class. I have Math." Thalia grinned at Percy. "But tomorrow all of us will have gym together at last period. I had Coach Hedge is going to allow us a free capture the flag game." She smirked evilly, as did everyone else at the table. Percy seemed a little confused as to why we all loved Capture the Flag so much. If you didn't go to Camp Half-Blood you probably wouldn't get it. You see at camp, Capture the Flag is a big event, all the cabins compete against each other. I always loved thinking up new strategies to kick the other team's butt. Athena always wins.

"Do you all like Capture the Flag?" Percy asked.

"Yeah, we actually all go to this summer camp. Capture the Flag is a really big deal there." Nico said, then slapped his hand over his mouth, again. Everyone was fully glaring at him. He smiled weakly. _Great job, Nico! Now he's going to ask questions about Camp Half Blood! Gods, why is he screwing up so much?!_

"You all go to the same summer camp? Cool. What's the name?" Percy asked.

"Um.. it's name? Oh yeah it, uh, it does have a name!" Nico said, his voice acting weirdly."It's called.. uh..."

"It's called Half Blood Hill. It's our basically our summer home!" Thalia finished. **(The Lightning Thief, pg. 24, Grover's Card.)**

"Really?" We all could detect the unbelieving edge in Percy's angelic voice. _Wait, angelic? What the Styx? _"Where is the camp? I might've heard of it. I used to jump around from place to place a lot."

"Oh.. we..-" Thalia cut Nico off again.

"It's actually in Rhode Island." We all looked at her in astonishment, shocked that she would give away the real location. Percy's eyebrows rose again. Thalia just ignored the looks she was getting.

"Cool. Is it like, a sleep away camp?"

"Yeah." Piper said."We all stay for the summer, then some of us go home. The um... richer," I knew she was referring to more powerful demigods when she said, richer. "-campers stay all year round if they want."

"Really? That's pretty cool."

"So Percy, what camps did you go to?" I asked, trying to switch the subject. The table looked at me gratefully.

"Too many to count. I met some pretty cool people, though."

"Like who?" I was surprised how much I wanted to know about Percy's past.

"Um.. well I met this one kid, Grover when I was twelve. He was pretty cool, always had a thing for the environment so we got along pretty well since I love the ocean. After we met we just sorta stuck together. We always went to the same camp." Percy finished.

"That's cool." Jason said. "Where is Grover now?"

Percy got a far away look in his green eyes. "Back in Rhode Island." We all lapsed into silence until Percy broke it. "Well sorry, but I gotta go to Greek, I don't want to be late!" He smiled a sad smile, got up and walked away. As soon as he was out of sight Reyna turned on Nico.

"What the Hades, Nico?"**(Or Pluto, since Reyna is roman. I just thought Hades sounded better, but you can choose)**

"I'm sorry! I don't know why I'm messing up so much!"

"Well you better figure it out soon, because Percy's not dumb!" Thalia exclaimed. "He'll figure somethings up soon enough. If he hasn't already of course!"

"I'm sorry! I'll do better, I just... I don't know." Nico looked down, ashamed. Thalia huffed while Reyna kept her stony mask on.

"Guys, I know it was pretty bad, but Nico tried. Stoop beating down on him." Hazel came to his rescue like the good sister she is. "We all make mistakes, we'll just have to be extra careful." Nico looked at her gratefully. Frank was looking down at Hazel with an expression of pride on his face. She smiled lovingly back up at him and quickly pecked him on the lips.

"Hazel's right. We can't blow up on Nico whenever he makes a mistake." Piper supported. Jason gazed at Piper with a similar expression as Frank. _Those two couples are just meant to be._

"Okay, okay." Thalia looked a little sheepishly at Nico. "Sorry, cuz." Reyna's mask softened, but she didn't offer an apology. _No wonder Jason likes Piper instead of her._

"Well I'd love to stick around and enjoy the apology festival, but I got mechanics next. So see ya guys later!" Leo stood and jogged off with his lunch tray under his arm.

"I'd better go, too. I have Greek." I said standing and walking off to class. _Hmm... Greek with Percy._

_Line Break~

I got to class five minutes early. Percy was standing at the front of the room going over something with the teacher. I thanked the gods for Percy being transfered into my class. Now I have Greek, Gym, Art and Music with him. I walked to my seat in the middle row and plop my books down. There isn't anyone else in the class room besides the teacher, Percy and me.

"Nice work, Percy. These are quite well done!" The teacher, Mrs. Casey, looked over at Percy. "Have you taken Greek before." I was close enough to hear his soft reply.

"No, I just started this year." Mrs. Casey shook her head a little.

"Well you certainly have a natural talent for the Greek language."

"Thank you, Mrs. Casey."

"Let's see, now." Mrs. Casey straightened out the stack of papers Percy had given her early. "Why don't you sit over there, in front of Annabeth?" She said pointing to the seat. Percy smiled and nodded before picking up his book bag and sitting in the seat. I looked at the clock, it was still three minutes before seventh period started. Percy turned around, locking my gaze with his green eyes.

"Hi, Annabeth."

"Hello, Percy. You got transfered to this class?" I asked, then mentally smacked myself for about the fourth time in two days. _Of course he transfered to this class!_

Percy nodded his head. "I had to change my math class, I was a little to behind in it."

"Oh." Was my genius answer. _Gods, am I really a child of Athena?_

"So, Annabeth, do you have a nickname? It's a very beautiful name, of course." He explained. I felt myself blush a little at his compliment. "I was just curious."

I sighed a little. "Yeah. Some people call me _Annie._ The problem is is that I hate that name." He grinned.

"So what's a nickname you _do_ like?"

I thought about it for a second._ What could Annabeth be shortened to? Annie? Anna? Beth? Na?_ Yeah, no. I shook my head. "I don't really go by anything besides Annabeth. What about you, Percy?"

"Well actually 'Percy' is already a nickname of sorts. My real name is Perseus." He explained. "But Nico and Thalia sometimes call me 'Perce'."

"Do you like 'Perce'?"

"Not really, it makes me sound like a woman's handbag." I laughed a little at that.

"Well, Percy, you can't really shorten 'Annabeth' into anything I like. I really hate the name Anna, Annie and Beth."

"But what is it wasn't shortened? What if we-" Percy was cut off by the bell. He turned around as Mrs. Casey called attention. _Wow, I didn't even notice the room filling up. _

All through Greek I stared at the back of Percy's head. Creepy? Yeah, very. But I couldn't help it. There was just some connection I felt to him.

_Line Break~

_What am I doing? Am I trying to be a stalker? This is so incredibly stalkerish of me. Styx, I didn't know there was a side of me like this!_ My thoughts whirled around in my head like a hurricane as I stared at the screen on my computer. After a boring bus ride home and one hour of doing homework I finally let my curiosity win. I needed to know more about Percy! I didn't even know his last name! I had accidently spotted Percy now and again during school. Always with his eyes cast downward, oblivious to the stares he was getting from the girls. Hades, I saw freaking Drew go up to him in an attempt to get his attention. He didn't even say more than three sentences to her! And she's a freaking daughter of Aphrodite! Turns out that Reyna isn't the only one interested in Percy. I heaved a huge sigh. _Okay, Annabeth. Calm down, straighten out your thoughts. I have this weird stab of emotion whenever I see a girl try to flirt with Percy. I want to know more about Percy. I am being a freaking stalker and trying to find him online. I want to know his back story so much. I think Thalia is right. The way my heart flutters when I lock eyes with him. The way I blush at the slightest compliment he gives me. I think I'm in lo-_ I snapped myself out of my train of thought. _Okay, before all of my common sense leaves me, I need to find out what I was searching for._ My eyes scanned the search engine bar.

"Percy, lived in Rhode Island, mother died in car crash..." I typed anything I knew about him in the search engine. _Lives with stepfather: Gabe Ugliono, best friend is Grover... _I just hoped I would find a match, a link to the Percy I know somewhere online. After a few minutes of just typing random things I knew into the bar I hit 'search'.

The first thing that comes up is a book about _the_ Perseus. Nope. The second link is about a state championship swim team in Rhode Island. That peaked my interest and I clicked on it. The first thing I saw was an old newspaper article with the name Jackson on the front. As I scrolled down I read that the article was on a final swim meet thing. I wasn't to big on swimming, but I knew that it was basically a big competition. Reading on I heard the same name being said over and over again. 'Jackson' was apparently a big pro at this, one every race he competed in. Too bad they never gave his first name. I sighed as I clicked on the next link.

After five minutes of scanning through impersonal clips and article about swimming, I finally came upon a link that looked promising. The first thing I saw after I clicked on the link was a picture. It was of two people, a woman in her thirties and a young boy about the age of five standing in front of an old-looking cabin. The cabin itself looked old, but sturdy, facing the sea. The woman looked proud and happy, with a smile on her face. Her soft brown hair was pulled into a ponytail revealing a kind, loving face. She had her right hand resting on the little boy's shoulder. The little boy had familiar black hair with a shiny edge to it. His smile was happy and carefree. His eyes were familiar too, the color of the sea. Percy. I quickly read the page. It was an old newspaper article on how Percy and his mom bought a cabin near Long Island at Montaulk.**(I don't believe it's spelled correctly)** Percy Jackson. It fit. I smiled, finally I at least know his last name. With that in mind I quickly went back to the search engine and typed in, "Percy Jackson".

Long after my usual bed time, I was still reading about Percy. From what I could tell he was quite a trouble maker. It was a little hard to believe at first, I mean, quiet, gentle Percy, a trouble maker? However after a few links on how Percy has destroyed schools in the past, I was convinced enough. But it didn't make sense. How could the Percy who always walked down the hall with his head down, who worked almost as hard as me in his studies, who spoke so softly it was like he was trying not to be heard at all, be the Percy I was reading about? That Percy was captain of the elite swim team, _that_ Percy got kicked out of every school he went to, _that_ Percy was known as school prankster and smart-Alec. How could they possibly be the same person? The only thing that matched was his appearance, his best friend Grover and his story.

_What could've changed Percy so dramatically in only a few years? _I thought as I finally put my computer away and climbed into bed. _What happened to Percy after his mom died? It must've been big for the Percy I read about to turn into the Percy I know in such a short time. The only thing present Percy and Past Percy share is a story, appearance and a best friend. Wait! _My eyes snapped open. _A best friend! Of course! Grover! He would know Percy the best beside Thalia and Nico. Oh my gods! Why was I so stupid before?! If I want to know about Percy's change, then Thalia and Nico must be at least interested! I could ask Thalia and Nico for help! We could find Grover and try to piece it together! _I fell asleep thinking of ways to get Thalia and Nico to agree to helping me find Grover and uncover Percy's hidden, complicated past. _I will figure this out, Percy Jackson!_

**~~~~~ Author's Note**

**Hello again. I know things have been pretty boring so far, but I needed to set up the stage. The action will start soon enough once they find Grover. A stage is very important, without one, there'd be no show.**

**Thank you, review if you'd like, but you don't have to. I will be posting as soon as I can. Have fun and take it easy! U got 2 get down 2 get up!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thank you for reviewing! I definitely will, thanks for the encouragement! Any way I forgot the disclaimer last chapter so I will be doing that now as well as the one for this chapter. By the way, JRezaei, thanks.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson, all rights go to Rick Riordan. (and just to be safe I'm doing another one for my last chapter)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson, all rights go to Rick Riordan.**

**Thank you for reading, U got 2 get down 2 get up**

**Thalia's POV**

_Percy's changed so much! What happened to that boy with a sparkle in his eyes? What happened to his proud posture? What happened to his self-confident smile? What happened to his funny, sarcastic nature? What happened to the boy I knew? Sure he looks the same, black hair, green eyes, but what happened to him on the inside? What happened to my cousin?_ I looked over at Percy from across the lunch table. He had a soft grin on his face, like he was afraid of smiling. He would laugh occasionally, but it was always strained and forced. The worst part is is that no one else seemed to notice his change, except for maybe Nico. Hazel and Jason didn't know him as well so they would assume he was always like this. _But he wasn't._ The thought keeps coming back to me.

"So Percy, I guess we all have gym together at ninth period, huh?" Jason stated.

Percy nodded his head. "I suppose we do."

"Prepare to meet the power of the Leo!" Leo said dramatically.

Percy cracked a smile, and just for one second, I could see a glimpse of the old smirk he used to wear. "Oh, you bet I will." He raised his eyebrows slightly. I almost caught my breath, there is the Percy I know! However _that_ Percy was gone in a flash, replaced by this new one. I sighed. I missed the old Percy.

Five minutes into lunch Annabeth leaned over to me. "Hey, Thalia, can I talk to you for a minute?" I looked at her quizzically, but nodded in agreement. She smiled then leaned over to Nico. He nodded as well. We all stood up with some excuse about getting more food or something. Like I cared.

As soon as we were out of sight, Annabeth pulled us behind a bush. She looked behind her, then back at us. _Okay... well this is a little creepy._

"What is it, Annabeth?" My patience finally worn thin.

She turned to look at us. Annabeth took a deep breath. "Guys, have you noticed a change from when you last saw Percy? I mean, face to face?" _Well that was unexpected._

Nico nodded slowly after a minute of silence. I sighed and nodded as well. "Yeah. The last time I saw him face to face was..." I trailed off thinking. _When _was _the last time I saw him? At least three years ago._ "- I think it was three years ago." Nico made a quick nodding motion with his head.

Annabeth took a deep breath again. "Okay, this is going to sound really weird, but I promise I'm not stalking Percy." _What? What is she talking about?_

"What are you talking about?" Nico voiced my thoughts.

"Okay, okay. I might've sorta looked up Percy online." Seeing our faces she quickly explained. "I wasn't trying to stalk him or anything! He just seemed like... I don't know... like he wasn't being real, I guess. Sorta like he was playing up a facade, or something." She trailed off, gauging our reactions to her observation. I don't know how she caught on so quickly, then again she is a daughter of Athena. I glanced over at Nico. He had a thoughtful expression on his face, and he was nodding a little.

"Yeah... he does seem like that. I don't know if you noticed, Thalia, but he seems a little off." Nico turned to look at me.

I sighed. "Yeah, really off. I've been thinking that for the past few days."

"I wish I could figure out what made him change like that." Nico said sadly._  
_

"Yeah, me too." I said. It wasn't until Annabeth cleared her throat a little that I remembered she was there. Both Nico and I looked up at her.

"Um, well, I might have a way we can find out." She scuffed the dirt with the toe of her converse. "When I was searching online, I was thinking about pieces of information that linked the Percy I was reading about, to the Percy I know now. I only found that his backstory is the same, his appearance," She looked at us slyly. "-his cousins and best friend." I sucked in a breath. _Of course, Grover! Why didn't I think of that before?_

"Of course!" Nico and I said in unison.

Annabeth smiled again. "Well, I had this idea." She paused for a second. "We need to be discreet about it, of course. We can't let Percy find out."

"Well tell us!" Nico waved his hands around in the air.

"What if, say, we all wanted to go to camp for a day to get some clothes or something? What if we accidently ran out of gas on the way there, say in Long Island?" I started to grin a little. "And what if we accidently find Percy's old home on Montaulk?"

"And if we accidently run into his best friend, Grover?" Nico asked, grinning from ear to ear. Annabeth nodded with a smile. "Well you can count me in!"

Annabeth turned to me. I grinned, "I could use a road trip."

_Line Break

The rest of the day crawled forwards until I was left with only ninth period. Gym. _Let's see if there's still some of that could old Percy in there._ I thought, watching him come out of the boy's locker room.

"Okay, cupcakes, listen up!" Coach Hedge bellowed in the middle of the gym. We all made a semicircle around him. "We are playing a game of capture the flag. Now I know _some_ of you are quite competitive in this game." He pointedly looks at all the demigods in the room. You see, Coach Hedge is a satyr. Long story short, he never got his searchers license so he was sent here with us demigods to make sure we behaved. For some odd reason Hedge looked over at Percy for a second then looked away with a confused expression. _Odd._ "And as much as I like a good ol' fashioned fight, we do have school rules. So here's the thing, no punches, no kicks, no elbowing or anything like that." He rolled his eyes while he was saying this. "Annabeth and Sloan will be captains. The flag has to be visible at all times. The jails will be on opposite side of the room by the locker doors. If there is a jail break there is _no_ freedom walk. If you want to be safe, then you gotta earn it and not just walkout when someone else does the work. Okay, I think that's all the basics, captains, choose your teams!"

Annabeth and Sloan, the school bully, stood in front of the other students. You could tell that everyone had mixed feelings about the teams. Some people wanted to be with Annabeth because she was the best strategist, while others wanted to be with Sloan because he was a big time jock.

"Sloan, do you want to pick first or should I?" Annabeth turned to look at Sloan.

"I'll pick first. Drew." Annabeth rolled her eyes, the only reason he picked Drew was because he had a crush on her.

"Okay, Jason."

"Jacob."

"Thalia." I smiled and walked over to her side.

"Silena."

"Nico."

"Piper." Sloan smirked once he said Piper's name. I narrowed my eyes at him, while Jason full out glared. Piper looked annoyed that she had to play against us, but she walked over to their side.

"Thalia."

"John."

"Frank."

"Jackson." The name rung out. I was now fully glaring at Sloan. Percy walked slowly over to their side and stood next to Piper who gave him an encouraging smile. Annabeth had also narrowed her eyes like the rest of her team.

"Hazel."

"Josh."

"Leo." They finished calling names.

Coach stepped forward. "Okay, now that that is out of the way, you have three minutes to hide your flag and figure out strategy. Go!" And with that we all huddled together as a group. Our flag was bright red, while the other team had a neon looking blue. We all turned to Annabeth.

"Okay, guys. We got the whole team here, but Sloan snatched Piper and Percy." Jason shot another glare at Sloan. "Calm down, Jason. We'll get our revenge by crushing these guys under foot." Jason smiled at that, as did we all. Let me say this once, _no one_ messes with my friends, especially Sloan. "Okay, so Sloan picked all the jocks, and cheer leaders. We know what to expect from them. The only wild card is Percy, since we know that Piper isn't going to help Sloan at all. I doubt Percy really likes being with Sloan, but he doesn't seem like the type to just surrender without a fight." We all nodded with agreement. "Here's the plan, I'm going to send the fastest and quietest over to their side to find the flag. We're not trying to do this dramatically. Sloan will send the cheerleaders and some of the bigger jocks over here to collect the flag. I bet he and most of the rest of his team will stay on the other side since Sloan likes numbers. We need some of the better fighters to stay here and deal with those dumb cheerleaders and stupid jocks. I'm not too worried about the cheerleaders, but if the jocks are over here then I want some of our stronger fighters here defending the flag. Also if Sloan sends Percy or Piper over here, well I just don't want to take chances." Annabeth took a glance at the clock, two more minutes. "Okay, I want the flag to be put at the top of the bleachers. Frank, Jason and Hazel, you guys protect it. One of you stand on the ground and walk around, pretend to be protecting the flag. If that person sees anyone come within a meter of it, I want them tagged and brought to our jail. The other two will be hiding next to the flag. If someone get up there, tag them and send them straight to jail." They nodded. "Good. Now Leo and Nico. I want you guys to be searching for the flag. You two are the quickest, there for you should be able to stay away from the bigger protecters. Thalia and I will also be looking for the flag. Now incase one of you gets tagged yell. I don't care what, but just make sure others know." Annabeth took a big breath. "Okay, if the unexpected happens, like Sloan sends all his jocks over here, then I want Thalia and Nico to come back and protect the flag with Hazel, Jason and Frank. Leo and I will keep going, looking for the other flag. If something _really _weird happens, like Piper tries to tag you, act on instinct. Okay, that's it. Go team!" We scattered.

You see, most gym capture the flag games would be easy. I mean, hello it's an open gym and everyone can see everything. But Goode spent a fortune on our gym and now ours is a lot bigger than most. It is almost as big as a football field with various obstacles in the middle. Coach can take them off the floor for basketball or something, but they are just usually sitting in the middle of the floor. They create a jungle of ropes, pools, balance beams and nets. Honestly, it's like an obstacle course from camp.

I ran with Annabeth to the side of the gym, while Nico and Leo went to the other side. Hazel, Frank and Jason all went to the back of our side, probably to set up their stations. I spotted Piper in the middle of the floor. She seemed to have been put on offense. I couldn't see Percy, but I'm sure he was somewhere around here.

"Okay, cupcakes, times up! You've got the whole period for this game, so I better so you sweating by the end of this! Now, BEGIN!"

The jocks rushed forward with the cheerleaders like Annabeth said. Piper stayed behind. I could see most of the smaller jocks still hanging around the back of the gym, along with Sloan. Leo and Nico slunk around the side of the room. Piper spotted them and made a half-hearted attempt to catch them. But I couldn't focus on them. I had a job to do. Annabeth and I both ran for the line, tagging people as we went. Normally, in high school games kids cheat. A lot. But with a coach like ours, who has uncannily good eyesight, no one cheats. We played that to our advantage, sending a lot of cursing jocks and pouty cheerleaders to our jail. Sure we didn't get them all, but they had thinned considerably. Annabeth and I dashed over the line and started to run from some of the jocks who were chasing us. We could see Leo and Nico sneaky around further back, still undetected. One look from Annabeth and I knew we were going to play 'distraction'. I sighed, I didn't like that, it was so boring! Then again, we probably were more noticeable then Leo and Nico. Might as well help them out a little more.

"Hey, Sloan! You to slow to catch a couple of girls?" Annabeth yelled. Sloan turned red and ordered Jacob over to wear we were standing. _Idiot._ I smiled.

"Oh is the little baby scared? How bout you try catching us yourself instead of sending others to do your dirty work, huh?" I asked. Sloan took a step forward. I inwardly grinned.

"I could catch a couple of little girls!" He sneered, a step behind Jacob who was making his way to us. "Josh, stay put. We're going to teach them a lesson." Josh nodded and turned around looking out for any other players. _Well I guess he isn't a complete moron. _Jacob and Sloan started to chase after us, they were incredibly slow. I actually laughed at their attempt.

"Thalia, focus. We still need to get Josh away from the flag."

I nodded. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well," We jumped over a balance beam still at the same pace. "Nico and Leo are still over there. And how many people do we need to get the flag over to our side?"

I smiled. "One."

"Exactly, if we get Nico to distract Josh long enough for Leo to steal the flag, then we're set." She had a thoughtful look on her face for a second. "Reyna could've been helpful right now."

"Yeah, to bad she had to go back to Camp Jupiter so suddenly." Annabeth looked like she was about to say something but then we were interrupted by Sloan.

"Come back here!" He was red in the face and gasping for breath. _Ha, sucker._

"What? Having trouble catching a couple of 'little girls'?" I asked, slowing down a little.

Annabeth looked at me, "Come on, if we some how get Josh to join in the chase without having to get Nico to help, then we'd have all the more chance. I still haven't seen Percy once, and that is starting to worry me." _Oh yeah, I haven't seen Percy either. Oh oh. If he's anything like the athlete I knew, then we're in trouble if we don't get this flag fast._

"Yeah, let's get Josh's attention too. We need to hurry, because if I remember correctly, Percy is one heck of an athlete." I notified Annabeth. She nodded and we headed back to wear Josh was standing.

Unfortunately things were not going as smoothly as hoped. When we got back to Josh, leaving Sloan and Jacob in the dust, we found Leo screaming something about underpants and running around like a chicken without it's head. _Wow, Josh is now the smartest jock I know. _I thought as I saw Josh not even trying to catch Leo. Instead he was focusing on keeping Nico away from the flag.

Annabeth snorted, "He's smarter than we gave him credit." I nodded. "Okay, so we need to get Josh away so one of us can get the flag."

"If you haven't noticed, Annabeth, Leo is already trying. And if Leo's insults can't get his attention, then I don't know what can." I said, watching Leo try another joke only to be met with silence.

"Oh, Thalia. He may be focused, but he is still a boy. And what do boys have?" I looked over at Annabeth with raised eyebrows.

"Excuse me? We aren't in health class, Annie."

Annabeth turned red, "I didn't me it like that! I meant that no matter how much he wants to suck up to Sloan, he still has hormones!"

"Okay, so what do you purpose?"

"I say that I'll go up to him and do whatever it takes to distract him, then you run in and steal the flag. If he gets in your war, hand it off to Nico and tackle him head on. I wouldn't normally volunteer for that kind of stuff, but I really want to win this game and you," She looked at me with amusement, "would probably deck him before he could come within a meter." _That is true, I do seriously hate boys. Except for my friends of course... though Nico is on boarder line right now._

"Okay, Annabeth, let's do this fast. I want to rub it in their faces."

_Line Break

"Hey, Josh." Annabeth walked up to Josh really slowly while I hid behind a bleacher. Nico had disappeared somewhere and Leo was still screaming at the top of his lungs. Who knew what he was saying, he switched to Spanish halfway through the game. **(Again, not trying to be racist, it says it in the** **books) **I wasn't sure where Sloan and Jacob were, but at that point I didn't really care.

"Oh hi Annabeth." Josh was still watching for Nico, but it was clear that Annabeth had his attention.

"So, Josh, Sloan set you up on defense?" Annabeth batted her eyelashes, while I was almost hurling. "_Wow._ You must be, like, really good!"

"I'd say so." He said with a cocky smile, obviously forgetting that Annabeth is on the opposing team. _Idiot._

"Well I just did." She giggled. "So if I told you that I had no plans for the weekend, what would you say?"

Josh was now completely focused on Annabeth. He didn't even notice me sneaking around behind him and reaching for the flag. "Well I'd say I would pick you up at seven."

Annabeth giggled again, slowly walking back while Josh followed. "And I'd say..." I grabbed the flag and snuck back through the bleachers. I gave Annabeth the thumbs up sign. She smiled then looked back at Josh.

"What would you say?" Josh asked, still unaware that I was a good yard away, with his team's flag I might add.

"I'd say, GO THALIA!" She turned around and sprinted towards the line. I was already sprinting. _10 yards, 8 yards, 5 yards, 3 yards, 1 more!_ I looked up to see Percy also running towards the line, our bright red flag clasped in his hand. _How in Hades? _I turned to look at Annabeth, her mouth was agape. She snapped it shut and shouted for me to run faster.

As I shot to the line I saw Percy a step ahead of me. _NO!_ Then suddenly Percy was on the floor. No one had touched him or anything. He was just laying on the floor, stock still. I skidded to a stop.

"Percy?" I asked, my voice shaking. He didn't respond. "Percy!" I was suddenly kneeling next to him, the flag was tossed aside.

"Percy, are you okay?" Nico asked as he kneeled down next to me. Jason, Hazel and Frank came running up, I barely registered that they were sweating and out of breath. I reached out my hand and gently touched his shoulder. He flinched back as if he was shocked. But I didn't shock him! I swear I didn't!

"Percy?" I asked again. This time his head came up a little.

"Oh, uh sorry guys." He shakily pushed himself up into a kneeling position.

"What happened?" Hazel asked gently kneeling down.

Percy looked scared for a second. "I, uh, just tripped. Um yeah, I tripped over my own feet, I'm really clumsy." I frowned. _The last time I saw him he had more agility then me._

"Your sure nothing else happened?" I asked, not quite buying his whole, Oh-I-am-so-clumsy act.

He nodded his head, "Of course I am, Thalia." He stood up and if anyone else was watching, they wouldn't have seen anything wrong. But I know him better than anyone else, there for I caught the slight grimace as it flashed over his face. "Well, we better go get changed, I don't want to stay here all afternoon." I looked around. It was only then that I realized that everyone else had walked away to change except for the group of demigods. (Minus Drew of course)

"Guys did you see him trip over his feet?" Piper asked. "Because I sure didn't. And I was right behind him."

Jason nodded in agreement, "Your right, Pipes. He seemed well in control of his feet, and his hands for that matter." Jason mumbled the last part. Everyone was silent, thinking over what they had witnessed.

"It doesn't seem likely that Percy would trip. He probably had just as much grace as us." Annabeth thought aloud.

"Plus he was captain of the Rhode Island swim team, he wouldn't just flop over." Nico added.

Frank sighed, "As much as this is going to bug me for the rest of the day, Percy did have a point. I really do need to change, plus I want to get out of here as soon as possible."

As the others left, Annabeth, Nico and I stood in the middle of the gym.

"Okay, guys. I was thinking of leaving next weekend, but because these odd events, I think we should go this weekend instead. Find Grover faster, and figure out what's up with Percy sooner." Annabeth toook charge.

"Okay, deal." Nico and I said in unison again. I punched him, it was annoying. We all slowly walked back to our locker rooms, thinking of what we might find out about my cousin._  
_

_Line Break~

"So guys, how did Percy get the flag exactly?" Annabeth asked with her eyebrows arched. We were all sitting by our favorite ice cream shop, Blue Ice Cream Blizzard. We had invited Percy to come, but he quickly declined, saying something about having to help Gabe with something. _Like get a bear from the fridge, cause he's to fat to get one himself._ I thought with malice.

"Yeah, you guys are demigods, too!" Leo laughed. "Plus you had a great vantage point." Jason, Frank and Hazel all looked down in shame.

"Leo's kidding, guys." Piper comforted. "We're just curious on how someone was almost able to beat one of Annabeth's plan, that's all."

Hazel took a breath. "Okay. Well we decided that Frank would be on the ground and Jason and I would hide by the flag. Frank got quite a few out, but there were more than expected."

Jason nods, "Percy is so much faster than I thought. I had to get out of my hiding spot to fend off one of the jocks that got past Frank."

"And I was taking care of a few cheer leaders. Then all of a sudden, Percy is standing right next to the flag. I was about to tag him out, but then he did a flip off the bleachers!" Hazel continued.

Frank sighs, "Then when most of Sloan's offense team was in jail I turned to see Percy dodging Hazel and Jason's attempts of tagging him. He really is quite fast. Then when he had an opening he bolted."

"I think you all saw the rest." Jason says.

After a second of silence Leo chuckles. "You guy's got beat by a mortal? No offense guys, but that is sorta sad."

"Hey," I said, looking up from my rocky-road ice cream. "Percy may be a mortal, but he is pretty athletic." I didn't like how Leo called Percy a mortal. Not that he wasn't, it was just that it didn't sound right.

"She's right," Nico supported. "You guys probably don't know his athletic back round."

Leo raised an eyebrow, "Then enlighten us on all the great physical achievements Percy has accomplished." The rest of our friends leaned in to hear. Annabeth seemed a little more eager than the rest, but I could've been imaging it.

Nico didn't even blink at his sarcasm. "Percy was the captain of the Rhode Island State swim team. They competed in the Nationals and won, thanks to Percy's round. He was captain of the sparring and lancing team, too."

"Of course then there are all the physical training camps he went to during the summer. We don't know all of them, but we do know that he went to a different one each year and came out on the top of his class." I put in. I smirked at Leo's slack jaw, obviously he wasn't expecting anything like that. I turned to the others and they all had similar expressions of awe.

"Then there's the military school he just got back from, the one he's been going to before he started here. I'm pretty sure he's trying out for the swim team next week. Like he even needs to try out, every school on the East Coast has been notified of Percy's achievements." Nico added. He turned to Leo. "That enlighten you?" I chuckled and high-fived Nico.

"Well guys no matter how fun this has been I need to go home." Annabeth stood up with her cup of vanilla ice cream. She pointedly looked at Nico and I, reminding us that we needed to pack for our weekend trip. _Like I could forget._ I rolled my eyes and quickly nodded at her. Nico did the same. _Well, this is gonna be fun..._

_Line Break

The week passed by in a flash and soon enough I was stuffing last-minute-essentials in my bag, getting ready for our weekend trip to 'camp'. Or at least that's what we told our parents, well that's what _Annabeth_ told her parents. Nico and I lived together in an apartment near the Empire State building. It was actually pretty nice, with a big spacious living room, a nice kitchen and two separate bedrooms. Anyway we were ready and heading out in a few minutes. I stuffed the last things inside then ran down to my car.

"Ready, Nico?" I asked as I started the engine. Nico sat in the passengers seat, looking at a map.

"Yeah, by the way, Annabeth is going to have to help us with navigation. This is confusing as Hades." He muttered, still scanning over the map.

We pulled into Annabeth's driveway. She ran out in the next few minutes, calling good-bye to her father. She threw her bags into the trunk then slid into the car.

"Hey, guys." She greeted as we pulled out.

"Hey, Annabeth. You ready to find Grover?" I asked. I could see her nodding in the rearview mirror.

"Yeah, I did a little research on my computer. We should head to Percy's old town first. It's called Portsmouth. Apparently one of the original towns in Rhode Island. Established in the 16 hundreds."

I rolled my eyes at her facts. _So daughter of Athena._ I thought. "That's great, but how do you get to Portsmouth."

Annabeth rolled her eyes and proceeded to point out various roads and highways to take. Nico marked them on our map, making it a lot easier to read. I felt a little excited I was going to finally start figuring out what happened to my cousin. _All I need is a little help from Percy's dear friend and my own memory. Then I'm sure with Annabeth's help we can piece it together._ I thought as we slowly made our way to Portsmouth. _I will find out what happened to Percy Jackson._

**AUTHOR'S Note**

**Sorry for not posting for a while. This took longer than expected. Review if you'd like, but you don't have to. I never really wanted to either. Okay, I will be posting chapters hopefully with more action. Take it easy, U got 2 get down 2 get up.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello, in this chapter more action will unfold. Thank you for reviewing, daineseanna and JRezaei, your comments really made my day! Guest, I'm not sure if that's your Pen Name or not, but thank you for the encouragement. You guys really keep me going. Take it easy.**

**Annabeth's POV**

Three hours and twenty five minutes. That is how long I had been in the car for. And still I had three more minutes a head of me. Three more minutes of listening to Thalia and Nico hurl insults at each other like smoking bombs with Green Day playing in the back round. _Oh please, help me!_ I thought, trying to tune out the cousins' constant bickering as I did research on Grover. It was actually a little creepy just how good I was at researching people. I had learned in the three hours and twenty five minutes that Grover's last name was Underwood. He was diagnosed with a leg disease, making him walking on crutches. He met Percy at Yancy Camp for troubled teens. **(I'm making it a summer camp, I know it's actually an academy in the books) **He was Percy's best friend, and supported him throughout his whole life. Most importantly, I learned that Grover still lived in a cabin near wear Percy lived. I also learned that Portsmouth wasn't the exact place where Percy lived. He actually used to live in a cabin on the beach of Montauk. **(I don't know where Portsmouth is, but I know it's real. Please just play along and pretend it's near Montauk. Also, pretend I'm spelling Montauk correctly) **_Let's just hope Grover decides to help. _I thought as we whizzed towards Percy's old home.

_Line Break

"You sure you kids are old enough to stay here without adult supervision?" The old lady was starting to tick me off. Yeah we were sophomores, but it wasn't like we were going to burn the entire motel down. I tapped my foot impatiently. It was 9' o clock at night, and I really wanted to go to bed. It might sound lame, but I am not a night person. I can't stay awake for very long and still function correctly.

"Yes, ma'am, I am positive that we can behave." I replied. Thalia and Nico stood behind me, their bags slung over their shoulders. Nico had a look of irritation on his face while Thalia looked down right annoyed. We had decided on our way here that we would get a room in a motel to stay the weekend while we found Grover. But honestly, I was ready to sleep outside if it meant not having to deal with the old woman's precautions. _Stupid mortals..._

"Well young lady, I am very sorry, but we can not let you stay here without supervision. You are clearly under the age of eighteen, therefore unable to stay here by yourselves." The old lady didn't seem particularly sorry about kicking us out. Thalia growled and started walking forward but I held out a hand to stop her. She was just a mortal doing her job, no matter how annoyingly. Thalia huffed, turned on her heal and stormed outside, Nico a step behind her.

I met up with Thalia and Nico by Thalia's car. The stars were shining bright overhead, like little pearls in an ocean of dark ink. "Well, Annabeth? Where are we gonna stay?" Thalia asked, still a little miffed I didn't let her pummel the old lady.

I sighed. "Well we don't have many options."

"Really? No kidding." Nico said, rolling his eyes.

"What are we supposed to do? Sleep on the sand?" Thalia asked. _Actually, not a bad idea, Thals._

"Actually, Thals. That isn't a bad idea." Thalia's mouth gaped.

"You're kidding. I was joking!"

"Hmm... oh! Maybe we don't have to sleep on the beach." I said.

"What do you mean, Annie?" I shot Thalia a glare.

"I mean, that if Percy's cabin is empty..." I trailed off, letting the idea sink in.

Nico nodded. "Beats sleeping on sand dunes." _Let's hope it doesn't have spiders... _I thought with a shudder.

_Line Break~

The cabin was old. It was sorta dirty. It probably had a million spiders lurking in the corners. But for some odd reason, I loved it. I don't know what made it so pleasant, but there was just a well-loved aura of happiness and love surrounding. It was like stepping into a cloud of innocent childhood memories and joy. The kind of memories that are remembered in a beautiful, buttery light. The kind that makes you feel something deep inside you, making you remember how everything was so black and white, yet so colorful and exciting back then. It was simply a beautiful feeling. Even Thalia and Nico felt it. Their tense shoulders immediately relaxed, and their faces had the smallest of smiles. We all went to work creating make shift beds and cleaning the cabin. By the time we were finished it was ten thirty, but I felt great. It felt good cleaning this place up.

We all flopped down on our beds. "I suppose we start our search tomorrow." I said, yawning.

"Yeah... tomorrow sounds good." Thalia rolled over and began snoring. I looked over at Nico who was already out. I smiled at my two best friends. They were truly great people. They may have seemed tough and hard on the outside, making everyone fear and avoid them. But if you got to know them, you'd see how much they loved and protected their friends and family. You would see how independent they were, yet how much they relied on each other. How they all seemed to play a different part that couldn't function without the other.

I smiled as I turned over onto my stomach, _They need each other as well as Percy, Percy needs them. _I closed my eyes and sighed. _And I need Percy..._

_Line Break~

"Okay, Annie, up and at 'em!" Thalia bellowed in my ear. I shrieked and fell off my bed. I blearily looked up at Thalia. _Why is she up? She's even less of a morning person than me...__  
_

"Thalia, what the heck?" I said, struggling to a sitting position. She smirked above me.

"Well, Annabeth, it's our first full day here and I don't want to waste precious time sleeping!" Now that didn't sound like Thalia. "Plus I'm really hungry. Nico and I have been waiting for you to wake up for like, ten minutes!" _Ahh, that sounds more like Thalia. _I thought as I climbed off the floor.

I stretched, "Okay, okay, I'm up. Why don't we start with a little breakfast, _then_ we can go on a wild goose chase for Grover. Even though," I added as an after thought, "It won't be very wild. I already have most of Grover's information." Thalia looked at me strangely. "Hey, I had to do _something_ while you and Nico were bickering about Green Day for three hours and twenty five minutes."

_Line Break~

I stood on the front steps of Grover Underwood's cabin. It looked a lot like Percy's, so it was pretty beat up. Nico and Thalia waited behind me. I took a deep breath, _Maybe we'll finally get some answers._ I rapped three times on the wooden door. We held our breath.

**Grover's**** POV**

I heard three sharp knocks on my door. _Well that's weird, I'm not expecting anyone. Unless..._ My eyes widened. _No, no it can't be! I've covered my tracks completely, there's no way a monster has found me! _I gulped nervously and put on my fake feet. Better not take chances that it _is_ a mortal. I thought. I trotted towards the door, my reed pipes in hand. _Huh, it doesn't smell like a monster. But not quite human either..._ I thought as I hesitantly opened the door.

My eyes widened yet again at the sight in front of me. Three demigods, two very powerful. _Oh Styx, their gonna attract quite a few monsters. _

"Hello, may I ask if you are Grover Underwood?" The girl in front had blonde hair in a ponytail. She obviously was the diplomat of the trio.

I nodded slowly, still have way behind the door. "Yes I am." I gave a nervous chuckle that came out as more of a bleat than I intended to. "May I ask who you three are?"

The girl smiled and stuck out her hand. "I'm Annabeth Chase. This is Thalia Grace," She waved her hand towards the punk styled girl. "And Nico DiAngelo." She finished, waving her hand towards the goth looking kid. My jaw dropped slightly. I was right! They were powerful.

I looked closely at Thalia, _Yep, definitely the daughter of_ _Zues I had heard about_. I attention turned to the gothic looking kid. _Well, this kid just screams son of Hades. These most be the demigods I heard of from the other satyrs._

"I see." My voice came out squeaky. "Why don't we all go down to the beach? I have a feeling we have a lot to talk about." I could feel the anxiety and curiosity rolling off them. Annabeth nodded and we all headed down to Montauk.

"So," I said as we sat down on the sand. It was just turning eleven, the sun coming down making everything glow gold. "What are you guys doing here?"

Annabeth shrugged. "Well we actually came here for some answers. Do you remember Percy Jackson?" My eyes widened for the third time that day. _They know him?_

"Yes, I do. He was my best friend until he moved away to NYC. Do you know him?"

Thalia nodded. "Yes, Nico and I are actually his cousins." I was stunned, _His cousins? Does that mean Percy is a demigod, too? _"We want to know something."

I nodded. "Okay, sure."

Nico took a breath. "We noticed a change in Percy. It wasn't a good one." _  
_

Annabeth nodded and continued. "And we were wondering if you could help us figure out what made the change."

"Is he monotone? A little depressed?" I asked cautiously. I had noticed that, too.

The goth guy, Nico, nodded. "Yeah, he is. He's eating a whole lot less, too. Plus, he barely uses is old sense of humor."

I was a little stunned. _Percy? No humor? _"Hmm... well I recognized the depression and monotone part of the change, but he still used a little sarcasm before he moved. When did he start going to your school?"_  
_

"He started on on Monday. He didn't go to Goode for a few years." Thalia informed. _So something must've gone a miss during those few years since Percy was still a little himself when he moved._ I thought.

"Based on what we heard, something must've happened during the three year time-span he was living with Gabe, then." Annabeth voiced my thoughts. We all nodded in agreement. I was still having trouble wrapping my head around the fact he still didn't have his sense of humor. _How is that possible?_

"Grover," Annabeth looked thoughtful. "Do you think it would help for you to see him again? It would be beneficial to both of you, and you could stay at my or Thalia's place." She sounded hopeful. _Huh, maybe it would help. I would need to see this un-sarcastic Percy for my own eyes anyway._

"I wouldn't want to impose on you guys." I said, flushing a little.

"You wouldn't be imposing! You'd be helping! And if you're alright with it, then we would just need your parent's permission." Thalia stated firmly. _Oh Styx, they still don't know I'm a satyr!__  
_

"Uh.. well I sorta live alone right now. My... camp director is like my father." I smiled nervously, "Perhaps you've met him, demigods. His name's Chiron." The three looked at me, astonished. Thalia jumped up and had a spear at my throat before I could even say, Styx.

"Who are you? How do you know about us? Are you a monster?"

"N-no, no NO!" I shrieked, a little higher than I'd like. Nico had a black sword in his hand while Annabeth was simply studying me. "I'm a s-satyr! I'm a satyr! I am a keeper for the Council of C-cloven Elders! I go to Camp Half Blood! Please don't slice me in h-half!" I ended my rant with a loud bleat.

Thalia narrowed her eyes. "And how do we know you aren't lying, _satyr_?"

"I'm wearing f-fake shoes right now! If you take them off I swear on the river Styx that you'll find hooves underneath them!" I bleated again.

Annabeth got up from her sitting position and walked over. She bent down and took off my shoes. Yep, goat hooves. "Thalia, let him go. He's a satyr."

Thalia complied, looking a little sheepish. "Sorry, Grover. I guess it's instinct."

I nodded, still a little on edge. "N-no problem." I stuttered a quiet chuckle. "I love having spears at my throat."

We all stood for a minute, in incredibly awkward silence. "Well um, despite the fact that I almost cut you in half, would you still like to come back to New York City with us?" Thalia asked.

I nodded. "Um yeah, if it's not too much of a bother. I would like to see Percy again, see him without his sense of humor."

Annabeth steps up. "Great! Grover, you're welcome to stay at either one of our apartments. You can stay as long as you want, I suppose. Um... well I'm sure you can help us figure out what's up with Percy." She said. Another awkward silence fell on us.

"Well," I cleared my throat. "Um, I guess I should get packing."

_Line Break~

As we crossed the Washington Bridge, I couldn't help but stare at Mount Olympus. _Aka, the Empire State Building,_ I thought. It stood high and proud against the skyline. Annabeth, Thalia, Nico and I had returned to New York City on Sunday. It was just sunset when we entered the city. It really was a beautiful place, in it's own way. The skyscrapers, the bridges, it was quite impressive. The way the sunlight reflected off the buildings was beautiful. Too bad it was so polluted. I had to hold my breath as we crossed the Hudson River. Yuck.

"Well here we are, home sweet home." Thalia said. We had dropped off Annabeth on our way to Thalia and Nico's apartment. I had been a little skeptical about Thalia driving since she was a sophomore, but then again, her father is Zues. The building it's self was pretty nice. A silvery metal coated the outside, encasing the whole building in a beautiful glow. It had fancy revolving doors and a red awning. Pretty nice, all in all.

As we made our way up to Thalia and Nico's penthouse, Thalia filled me in on 'the plan'. I was to stay with Thalia and Nico until we could figure out what was wrong with Percy. Thalia had gotten me enrolled in Goode High School, so I was all set to start on Monday.

As I fell asleep on Nico and Thalia's comfy couch I thought of my best friend. _What could have happened to Percy?_

__Line Break~_

The bus ride was torture. It sent off so many fumes I thought I might choke. _So much pollution. So much!_ I thought as we pulled into the school parking lot.

"Okay, so Annabeth should be meeting us at my locker after we got your whole schedule down." Thalia stated as we headed towards the main office.

"Hello, honey. What can I do for you?" The lady at the desk asked. She seemed nice enough, with a pink sweater on. A little grandmotherly.

"Hi, Mrs. Pape." Nico said. "This is Grover. He is just starting today. We were wondering if you have his information."

Mrs. Pape smiled kindly and searched through a filing cabinet. "Why, here we are! Grover, right? Your locker number is 423, right down the west hall, here." She said, pointing to a place on the little map she had spread over her desk. "We don't have homeroom here at Goode, but you do have about a thirty minutes to get settled and socialize before classes start." Mrs. Pape slid a piece of paper over to me. It had a bunch of classes and times on it. "And here is your schedule, dear. Would you like a tour?"

"That's okay, . We'll take it from here." Thalia said, leading me out of the office.

"Have a nice day, dears!"

_Line Break~

"So what is your schedule?" Nico asked as I closed my locker. We still had fifteen minutes till classes started.

"Um." I checked my schedule. "Looks like Science."

"Hey, guys!" I looked up to see Annabeth come running up to us. "How are you settling in, Grover?"

"Good, just trying to figure out my schedule."

She looked over my schedule. "Hmm, seems that you'll have pretty much the same schedule as me. That means you won't be seeing Percy till lunch."

"Oh okay. Gee, I can't wait to see him. We haven't spoken for like, three years."

"Yeah, this must be really exciting for you." Nico chimed in.

I nodded. "I want to figure out what's wrong with Percy."

Thalia grunted in agreement. "I think we have a common purpose."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Of course we do. Now, should we tell our friends about our situation?" She turned to look at me. "They, by the way, are also demigods. Jason is Thalia's little brother, and Hazel is Nico's sister. You'll meet them today at lunch. There is also Piper, Jason's girlfriend, Frank, Hazel's boyfriend, Leo and Reyna. Silena and Drew are also demigods, but we don't really talk to them."

I blinked. _Did she always talk so fast?_ "Thanks."

_Line Break~

Lunch. FINALLY!

"Whoa, Grover, dude, slow down! You're going to choke!" Leo warned me. I had gone through the whole introductions before I had sat down. They all seemed like nice people, at least they took the news of my being satyr a little better than Thalia. They were actually quite welcoming. We had told them all about our little predicament, and they were more than happy to help.

"I'm sorry, I just love these enchiladas!"

Leo tipped his invisible hat at me. "That I can understand, _amigo_." **(Again, not trying to be racist. I just want to include Leo's heritage)**

"Hey, Grover, here comes your best friend." Thalia nudged me. I turned around. There was Percy. He seemed taller, though that was to be expected. His hair and features were the same, but there was something definitely off. The way his posture was slouched, as if saying _Don't look at me! Just leave me alone!_, wasn't what I remembered. The way his eyes were down cast or the way he strides were small and hesitant, instead of the long, confident ones he had three years ago. _  
_

He looked up and met my gaze. His eyebrows shot straight up and his mouth dropped slightly. "Grover!" He exclaimed as he reached our table. "What... I don't... It's great to see you, buddy!" He smiled one of his old smiles, the one that made everyone smile too.

"Percy!" I bleated. _Whoops. That wasn't supposed to happen._

"I can't believe you're here! How have you been? Are your legs still okay? What are you doing here? Where are you staying? How long are you gonna stay?" Percy stopped for a second. "What are you doing at Goode?"

"Slow down, Perce! Easy does it!" I exclaimed. "First of all, I am at your school because Thalia enrolled me here, I am staying with Thalia and Nico till further notice, I obviously came to see you and go to Goode, my legs are um... fine, and I've been great." I took in a deep breath. "I think those answer all your questions."_  
_

Percy grinned like crazy. He turned to Thalia. "You got him enrolled here? How? You're a sophomore!"

Thalia smirked, though you could see the how happy she was underneath. "Well, smart one, I always get my way. Plus I thought you could use some homey-feeling." As she said the last part, her smirk melted into the sisterly-loving smile.

"No way! You're awesome, Thals! But how did you find him?"

"Um..."

Annabeth spoke up then, "We actually found him by accident. Thalia, Nico and I decided to get some stuff from this summer camp we go to. It just so happened to be right next to Montauk. We ran into Grover, and I guess everything sorted itself out from there."

A weir look flashed in Percy's eyes. "Oh, cool! A summer camp, huh? Is it that same one you guys were talking about before? What was it called again? Half Blood Hill?" I felt a stab of panic. _Did they mess up and tell a mortal about camp?_

Once again Annabeth saved us again. "Yeah, actually it is. I forgot my bag of architectural astro-physics."

His right eyebrow rose, but other than that Percy didn't indicate he doubted anything.

_Line Break~

After that first day, Thalia, Nico, Annabeth and I all started to watch.

**I do believe that is where I'll stop. Sorry I didn't update on Saturday or Friday like I did before. I was caught up in something. Anyway like I said before, no pressure in reviewing. I don't like doing it either. Take it easy, guys! U got 2 get down 2 get up.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Haha, thanks, BananaWombat221! I was wondering! I would also like to thank Doughnutswilderness, your comment really brightened my day! As for thetrueHermione (Guest), thanks, it's good to know, and I definitely will finnish it since you requested me to! Guest, thank you so much for your encouragement, it really helped me out! Kate (Guest), you gave me an excellent idea for this chapter! I thank you very much since I was a bit stuck. Beeimahalfblood, Thank you so much! Your comment made me feel so good, I will definitely update now! Finally seaweedbrainlover1117, I LOVE your attitude! Trust me, Percy's friends will find out, and when they do... well, Gabe's not going to be to comfortable after that! Your comment really made me laugh, again, I LOVE your attitude! Thank you guys, all of you, for reviewing, this is the most I have had so far!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson, all rights go to Rick Riordan.**

**Annabeth's POV**

"Hey, Perce!"

"Hey, G-man!" Percy exclaimed happily, sitting down next to us at our lunch table. Percy had seemed a little more open once Grover had enrolled at Goode. He definitely smiled more often, and I could see how his guard would slip every once in a while. Percy seemed to be a little more free, his attitude brighter, his eyes happier, and his humor showing more often. Even the atmosphere around Percy was lighter, making anyone within a five-foot radius smile.

"So, do you have time after school to go see the new skate-board store? It just opened a few days ago, and apparently it is pretty good!" Grover asked, munching on a vegetarian enchilada.

One of Percy's alien-expressions flickered across Percy's face. I had become a little better at catching them, but I still had no idea how to interpret them. "Oh, um, sorry I can't. I have to... do some projects after school. I'm really behind!" Percy stuttered, his eyes flitting nervously around our lunch table. Nobody seemed to notice except for Thalia, Nico, Grover and me.

"Really?" I asked. "Which project? I haven't been assigned any."

Percy uncomfortably fidgeted with his fork. "Uh, yeah. Well they're not actually... for school! Um, they're for my stepfather. Yeah, uh, really important... and stuff." He gave us a strained smile. All four of us narrowed our eyes. He hadn't done anything, with anyone after school since he got here.

"Okay..." Grover trailed off.

"How 'bout on Saturday, Perce? I was thinking about going to the movies. We could see Spider Man 2 or something..." Thalia looked at Percy hopefully.

He quickly shook his head, "Sorry, Thals. I can't I have plans."

"Oh really?" Nico asked, an eyebrow raised. "Plans with who?"

"A... f-family... thing." Percy said. He stumbled over the word, 'family'. _Why?_

"Guys," The increasingly annoying voice of Reyna cut through our conversation. "Don't you know it's rude to be so intruding? Let Percy do what he wants." We all turned to glare at Reyna. She smirked coldly back at us then sent Percy a flirty smile. _Why do we hang out with her? _I thought, turning back to Percy with a huff.

"I guess Reyna is right." Grover said grudgingly.

"Yeah, I guess... sorry, Perce." Nico said, looking at the table.

Percy cracked a soft smile, "Hey, it's fine! I'm sorry I have such a packed schedule!" He chuckled.

We all smiled awkwardly at one another, until Percy and Grover started talking about skate-boards. Even though Percy had been acting a little more cheerful, there was still something off. Something big. Being the daughter of Athena, I was blessed with patience. _So that's what I'll do, then. _I thought determined. _I'll wait, watch, and listen. I'm sure I'll know what to do in a few weeks. _

_Line Break~

_I had no idea what to do. We had been watching Percy for a little over a month. Nothing. Grover couldn't think of anything that would change Percy so drastically. The bad thing is, is that sometimes I thought that maybe Grover wasn't telling all he knew... just sometimes. The rest of our group still observed with us, but it was becoming increasingly hard to find Percy when he wasn't on his guard. His 'status' in school had taken a dramatic turn. The "popular'' kids found out that he was an athlete, plus having I'm-gonna-leave-my-boyfriend-just-for-you looks. Let's just say he became very popular very quickly. The thing that I loved though, was that he didn't want to. He practically ran from the cheerleaders when they threw themselves at him, and he made it very clear that he didn't want to join the jock's table. Go Percy!_

"Guys, I don't know what to do." The exasperated voice of Thalia snapped me out of my reverie. We were all camped out in Thalia and Nico's apartment for the evening. Thalia was flopped over the leather couch with a bowl of popcorn on the floor next to her. Nico was channel surfing, though he didn't look like he found anything. And Grover was raiding the kitchen. Yep, a thrilling Saturday night. I thought as I sat in the comfy recliner.

"About what, Thals?" I asked, even though everyone already knew.

Thalia groaned, "My cousin, Annabeth!"

"I am touched by your concern, but what are you concerned about?" Nico said, not taking his eyes off the TV from where he sat on the floor.

"You know what I meant, Death Breath!"

I rolled my eyes. Some people never grow up. "I don't know, Thalia. We've been watching him for a month now. Still nothing."

"Yeah, nothing but his growing popularity." Thalia huffed.

"What are we talking about?" Grover asked, coming in with a plate, towering with vegan tacos.

"What to do about Percy." Nico responded.

"Oh..." Grover plopped down on the ground, a few feet from Nico. "Well, I know that Percy guards his secrets well."

"Obviously." Nico said.

I thought about it. We haven't been making any progress watching him in school. We were part of the public eye then, so anything we saw, people at school would too. I bet he knew it, too.

"Annabeth, you have that face on. What are you thinking about?" Nico asked. I looked up to be greeted by three curious sets of eyes.

"Well I was just thinking that we have been watching him at school. And school is a public place. Maybe he wouldn't show that many clues in a public place. Maybe he would let down his guard more on his own." I smirked a little. "And maybe we would be there to see it."

Thalia sat up, grinning. "Yeah, maybe we would. You know, I happen to know which way Percy's apartment is. If we, oh I don't know, follow him to his house, do you think he'd let down his guard then?"

"Oh most definitely, he would." I said.

"Well, we don't have anything better to do on Monday afternoons anyway." Nico said, he was also smirking.

We all turned to Grover. "I'm in." Wonderful. We are going to have an interesting Monday afternoon.

_Line Break~

You know how in the movies, spying on people is always so easy? How when the person turns around after hearing a sound, there is no one there? How the spies peak through bushes, and swing through trees with not as much as a sound? Well, surprise surprise, it's not that easy! Imagine having to run after a person who has incredibly long strides, trying to keep out of sight of the person, but keep that person in your sight, trying to not make a sound, running over incredibly dirty alleys, and doing this all with someone whose half goat and can't keep quiet for his own life. If you just followed that I commend you. The good thing was that we were able to convince the rest of the group to stay behind so only Thalia, Nico, Grover and I had to follow Percy.

"Stopping pushing!"

"I'm sorry, but I can't help that my shoes are fake!"

"Hey, put your crutches somewhere other then my face!"

"I'm sorr-"

"Shut up!" I hissed. Thalia, Grover and Nico immediately quieted. "Thank you." I huffed, turning back to my little peep hole in the bush we were hiding in. We had been following Percy since he left school. I didn't realize how long of a walk he had to school. All four of us were cramped behind a bush, watching Percy walk up to Bramford.

Percy stopped at the bottom of the steps, suddenly seeming nervous. It can't be that he thinks it's haunted. I thought. He's way to smart to fall for that kind of stuff. Percy took a deep breath and slowly climbed the stairs. He brought out a key and shakily unlocked the door. Shakily? I was dumbfounded. How could something make Percy so nervous in a matter of seconds? Motioning to Thalia, Nico and Grover, I started creeping out of our hiding place. Normal people would have to wait for someone to unlock the door for them. Not us, we were demigods.

**(I don't know what Bramford looks like on the inside, I am guessing. If I am wrong, I am sorry)**As soon as Percy closed the door behind him, I jumped up and ran to the door. I didn't want to risk losing him in there, we would've never found his apartment. I paused for a second or two before starting to pick the lock, not wanting him to see us. After what I thought was a reasonable amount of time, I opened the door and peaked in. I could see the faint outline of Percy's back, disappearing into the gloom of a large hallway. I nodded to my teammates over my shoulder, before slipping inside.

We followed Percy up numerous flights of stairs. They all looked identical to one another. When my legs were just about to give out, Percy finally stopped in front of one landing. As we followed him down one gloomy hallway, I started to hear the sounds of a party. I identified the sounds of beer bottles clinking, cards slapping a surface, and the almost-insane laugh of four or five men. Percy stopped in front of the door where most of the noise came from.

He sucked in a huge breath, then slowly unlocked the door and pushed it open a little. This is it. I thought, I looked over at Thalia, Nico and Grover. They nodded, remembering the plan. We were all supposed to use our powers to stay out of sight, yet being able to see too. I swiftly tugged my baseball cap, which made me turn invisible, onto my head. I turned and saw Nico in case himself in shadows, turning nearly as invisible as me. Thalia took a deep breath, then summoned the wind to lift her and me up (Making us quieter), she grabbed onto my hand, effectively channeling my invisibility into her own power. Grover picked up a soft, eerie tune, slowly transforming into a breeze. **(I am quite aware that there is noting remotely close to this happening in the books, but I want them all to see, so please just play along!) **We all snuck in, barely making it into the apartment. Yuck, what kind of dump is this? I thought with disgust. The apartment was littered with garbage. Empty beer bottles were strewn across the room, making it almost impossible to stand up straight. Empty pizza boxes were littered around the room. I almost gagged when I saw a rat slip under a can.

Four huge, disgusting men were sitting around a poker table. They all had one hand full of cards, and one with a beer. The biggest, ugliest of them all turned his greasy head to look at Percy who stood stock still by the door.

"Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in." He smirked, and took a swig from his bear bottle.

Thalia whispered in my ear, "That's Gabe. Percy's stepfather."

Percy gulped, but remained silent.

One of Gabe's friends laughed, "It looks like a dead rat!"

Another said, "Nah, more like a dead dog. And you know what all sons of dogs are, right?"

Gabe and his friends laughed hysterically. Percy was slowly inching out of the room, probably trying to get to his bedroom.

"Hey!" Gabe shouted. "Where do you think you're going?"

Percy looked up from the ground. "To my room."

Gabe raised an eyebrow. "You haven't given me my fifteen bucks yet. And you know you don't get by without giving me fifteen bucks."

"I don't have any money, Gabe." Percy said through gritted teeth.

"Well, then, I think you know what's coming, now don't ya?" Gabe started to get up, along with his four other friends. They started towards Percy, two a little faster than the others.

Percy backed up even more quickly. "G-Gabe, stop. I don't have a-any money! S-stop!" I clenched my fist, trying to keep a rational mind. I felt Thalia tense next to me, I heard her shallow breath. I knew she was fighting just as hard not to deck these guys. I could see the faint outline of Nico, standing a few feet away from us. He was radiating fury. Grover's current of air had also turned stormy, a few degrees colder than the rest of the room.

**(OKAY! HERE IS WHERE THE T RATED PART COMES IN. PLEASE SKIP IF YOU DO NOT LIKE VIOLENCE!)**

Gabe smiled sadistically. He raised his hand still clenching the half empty beer bottle, and brought it down with force. CRACK! The bottle shattered on top of Percy's head. I saw red. I started forward, but forgot about the beer bottles. I fell, but thankfully didn't make to much sound thanks to Thalia's wind current. I was still dazed though, sitting on the disgusting floor. The bad thing was that I accidently brought Thalia down with me. We were both dazed on the floor, to much in a stupor to do anything but watch in horror and fury. Nico must've ended up in something of the same predicament, since none of Gabe's cronies had fallen down dead yet. **(Meaning that Nico would've killed them if he could... sorry, that was a bit hard to understand.) **Grover's anger was tangible, but he was still in wind formation and couldn't do anything but watch as well. So we watched.

**(T RATED PART IS OVER, A LITTLE OF THE AFTERMATH IS NEXT, BUT IT SHOULD BE OKAY)**

After fifteen excruciating minutes, the damage was done and Gabe and his friends walked out the door, still laughing. By now I had gained my full senses, back. I wanted to run to Percy who was on the floor groaning, but I remembered I was still invisible. It would be a little hard to explain why a voice was just randomly talking to him. I could sense the other's growing frustration and worry about the situation. Just as I was about to run to Percy, Screw the secret, he got up on his own. I was shocked, how could a mortal take that kind of a beating and still be able to get up? We watched him stagger over to the doorway. After a few seconds after he disappeared down the hall, we heard the shower start. I was about to follow when the hall thing sunk in. Percy is abused. He is abused by Gabe. My mind kept repeating to me. Then the flow of questions started. _How long has this been happening? Why hasn't Percy told anyone yet? How can all the scars and bruises be hidden when we see him in close proximity all the time? Does Percy usually take that kind of a beating? Why didn't I see it before? How can I stop this? Will Percy ever tell us, or will we have to trick him into saying it. We can't let him know we spied on him... especially since we were invisible while doing it. How could someone do that to someone else?_ My thoughts went a million miles an hour, struggling to accept what just happened. I took of my Yankees cap for a brief second to signal everyone to meet outside, we couldn't help Percy now by barging in on him in the shower.

_Line Break~

Thalia, Nico, Grover and I all sat around Thalia and Nico's apartment in silence. We had walked home in silence, too, still struggling with this new information.

Thalia broke the silence. "Percy is abused. He is abused. ABUSED!" She started off quiet, then her voice rose until she was screaming. "THAT PIG IS ABUSING MY COUSIN! MY COUSIN!" She jumped up and hit the couch with such force I was afraid it would break. "GABE IS GOING TO REGRET THIS FOR THE REST OF HIS NO-GOOD, WORTHLESS LIFE!"

Nico's dark eyes had turned from his usual pitch-black, to a dangerous obsidian. "Gabe Ugliono is going to regret this for more than just his life-span, Thalia." His face was set in a murderous glare. "A lot more than his life-span."

Grover was seething in silence, but you could tell by the way his grip on his reed-pipes was so tight and his furious expression, that he couldn't wait to get his hands on that poor excuse for a mortal. As for me, I was ready to run back to Bramford and beat up Gabe and his gang three times as bad as they did Percy. But I was a daughter of Athena, I had to keep my head.

"I think we can all say that we are all ready to rip out Gabe's throat right now, but we have to deal with this with a clear head." I said unconvincingly, seeing as I spit the words through my teeth. _Oh screw a clear head! Stab Gabe right in his miserable heart!_ The more emotional part of my brain said. _Or,_ my more rational side reasoned, _W__ait, plan and make revenge five times as bad as that._

"Oh? And what do you think we should do, then? Wait around while Percy is freaking ABUSED until we find some brilliant way to end Gabe? I don't THINK SO! That POOR EXCUSE FOR A MORTAL IS GOING TO DIE!" Thalia turned on me.

"I think we should convince Percy into telling us he's abused, then help him once he's admitted it. Then we don't have to explain how we know. And once we have a plan, revenge will be five times worse." I sounded emotionless, but I knew that it would make it easier for both sides of the party. _And revenge all the more sweeter..._

Thankfully Grover supported me, "Annabeth's right. As much as I hate Gabe right now, it won't do us any good to go storming the streets looking for him. If we get Percy to admit he is being abused," Grover's voice filled with hate when he said it, "then we could get rid of Gabe so much more easily."

Nico stood then. He faced us with a cold, brutal face, the kind of face I only see when someone threatened a friend. "You expect us to sit down and watch Percy, _our cousin_, go through this pain everyday? You saw what Gabe and his cronies did! They beat him till he was nearly unconscious! I'm actually surprised Percy _didn't_ pass out from the pain! And you two are suggesting letting this happen?" He asked outraged.

I stood as well, no way was I backing down. "I know where you're coming from, Nico. I honestly do. But simply marching up to Gabe and killing him is just going to cause more trouble for Percy. No doubt Gabe's poker buddies would claim he did it, and I don't think you want Percy behind bars for the rest of his life." I took a deep breath. "All I'm asking is for you to play this out. We'll find a way to convince Percy to admit he's being abused, without the use of godly powers, then we will make a plan on getting Gabe thrown in jail. It would be a lot easier if Percy helped us. If we get evidence against Gabe, then we won't have to worry about him ever again. Plus, Percy would be in the clear, no suspicion on him. Please, just give this time to play out. I hate what's happening just as much as you do, but to get the best revenge we have to be patient." I watched Nico and Thalia closely, waiting for their responses.

Nico looked deep in thought, two conflicting sides fighting. Of course his natural instinct was to protect Percy, but in the long shot, which side would be better for Percy? Thalia looked like she was about to explode. Her face was red, sweat beading on the top of her brow. Her eyebrows were scrunched together in concentration._ Please, please._ I thought._ Let me put my full wrath on Gabe, my way._

"Alright." The gruff reply came from Thalia. She started walking away, but turned around before she had gotten three steps. "But, if this takes more than two and a half weeks, I am sending that bastard to Hades whether you approve or not." She stormed away, cursing in ancient Greek under her breath.

Nico also stood up, not much better than Thalia. "I don't like this, but you raise a good point. Killing Gabe right off the bat is just going to cause more trouble for Percy. But, like Thalia said, if this plan of yours doesn't develop in two weeks, doesn't start at at least three days before our deadline," A malicious glint in his cold black eyes, "we're not waiting any longer."

_Line Break~

Tension weighed heavily on our group for the first few days. I had been thinking furiously on a plan to get Gabe in jail. Convincing Percy that we had figured out that he was abused without our demigod powers would've been easy enough. The problem was getting Gabe arrested. If he had been able to keep up his sick _game_ for three years, he must've been pretty good at lying. Thalia and Nico had become increasingly short tempered in the time it took to get to school. We were all anxious to see Percy. _Make sure that PIG didn't kill him..._ I thought viscously. _Because if he did, well, I'm with Thalia and Nico._

"Look, there's Percy!" Grover nudged me. I spun around and sure enough, there was one of my best friends, Percy Jackson. He held a lunch tray piled with food and was walking towards our table with a bunch of girls following him. _If they don't back off by the time Percy gets within a ten-foot radius, I will personally kick every single one of those air-heads. _I felt the weird feeling in the pit of my stomach that I got every time I saw a girl mooning after and Nico's eyes followed their cousin while he made his way to us. _Probably looking for signs of pain. _My hands clenched into fists. _But if we didn't notice before, I suppose we won't be able to see now. He must be a very good actor._

"Hey, guys." Percy greeted as he sat down between Grover and me. His greeting was met with four pair of eyes watching him. Percy gave a nervous grin. "Um, why are you guys staring at me?"

I was the first to snap out of the inspection. "Oh nothing! Hi Percy. How are you doing?"

He turned to me, his green eyes a little doubtful it was 'nothing', but he let it pass. "I'm good. Finished my English essay in record time. How are you guys?"

I forced a bright smile. "Great!" Percy and I turned back to the others. I gave a small nod, indicating that it was time to start convincing Percy to tell us about his secret. Thalia nodded back. Grover made a nervous sign with his hand, indicating that we should do this somewhere quieter.

Nico caught on. "Um, hey Perce! Could we talk to you in private? We wanted to ask you something." I almost face-palmed at how bluntly he said it.

Percy looked nervous again. "Um... okay I guess." _It's a good thing everyone else is in their own little worlds. _I thought as I stood up along with Grover, Nico, Thalia, and Percy. I looked around at our lunch table. Piper and Jason were staring into each other's eyes, small smiles playing on their faces. Hazel and Frank were talking animatedly with Leo, who was laughing at something. The only person watching was Reyna. Her cold, brown eyes followed us as we walked to behind the school. I stopped under the tree where Percy and I do homework sometimes. We had started meeting there a lot. I usually helped him with homework while he amused me with jokes and stories.

We all looked at Percy. He shifted his weight from foot to foot. "Um, okay guys. So what did you want to talk?" His sea green eyes flitted around our group.

I stepped up, "Well Percy, we were just wondering... um... well you see...-" I looked behind me for help. How could I just casually bring up the fact that we know he's abused?

Thalia seemed to understand my distress. She stepped next to me. "Percy, we wanted you to know that we know something." _Well, that was blunt._ I thought. I motioned for Nico and Grover to stand behind Percy since he looked about ready to bolt. He spun around, just realizing that my silent command had been obeyed, and his only exit was blocked.

He swiveled back to face Thalia and I. "W-what do you mean?" He asked, trying to stall for time.

"We mean that we know a big secret of yours and we want you to know that it's alright to say it." I explained gently. His eyes took on an even more panicked look.

"I-I don't know w-what you're talking about!" He stuttered as he tried to back up, only to be intercepted by Nico and Grover. "L-leave me alone!"

His statement broke my heart. His voice was so full of pain and fear. "Percy," I tried again. "Please, please, let us help you! We can help! We know what your hiding."

"Perce, we're your family, Thalia and Nico are even blood related to you! We know what you're going through, let us help!"

Percy froze for a second. "You know what I'm going through?" He asked, hope underlying the fear in his voice.

"Yeah, we do, cousin." Thalia says. "We just need you to admit it so we can get started on fixing you up."

Percy looked stunned for a second. "Fix me up?" His tone was incredulous. "How can you do that?"

"By bringing it to court of course!"

"Uh, how is that supposed to help anything?" Green eyes swam with confusion.

Now it was Thalia's turn to look stunned. "I-it will get him thrown in jail obviously!"

Then something happened that I never thought would occur, happened. Percy burst into laughter. He fell on the ground, his laughter echoing off the school. _He has a nice laugh. Rich in tone, but soft. _I thought. When Percy was finally able to gain control of himself he pulled himself into a sitting position. "And how exactly are you going to win _that_ case?" He chuckled.

Everyone was thoroughly confused at that point. _Why did he react that way? Gabe can't possibly be good at court. _I thought. We stood over him. Finally I decided to break the silence. "Uh, Percy, it's not like _we'd _be the ones presenting that case. We'd get a lawyer."

"A lawyer would need evidence." Percy said.

"Right, so why don't you start with admitting it?" Nico asked.

"Like it would do much good." Percy said, a little bitterly.

"Of course it would!" I assured. "You would be testifying your own case, and honestly, it would be a lot easier to win a case if the person we're trying to help actually admits."

Percy sighed, "I seriously doubt you're going to have a prayer at winning this." He looked up from the ground and met everyone's eyes. "But if you somehow think this lunatic idea will actually help anything then fine." He stood. His sea green eyes flashing with defiance. "I'm a demigod."


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello, I'm sorry it took me so long to post. Thank you so much, Beeimahalfblood, you make me feel really great! Drinkingthestarswithbob, Okay, okay, calm down. Deep breaths! I love your enthusiasm, and I will definitely update as soon as I can, since you asked! PlusIsis, I'm really happy you like the story! It's always nice to hear people enjoy it! Kate, thank you so much. I always look forward to your review! FangirlAlertWatchOut, IIIIIII WWIILLL! :) Thank all of you guys so much, you guys really make my day!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any of it's characters. All right's go to Rick Riordan.**

**Annabeth's POV**

_"I'm a demigod."_

"What?" The word breaks the stunned silence that had settled over the group. It fell from the slack lips of Thalia.

Percy's eyes are wide. "That's not what we were talking about?" He asked in a halting voice. My brain went a million miles an hour, _Now it makes sense! The swiftness, the agility, the ADHD, the Dyslexia, even how he got up after Gabe and his friends beat Percy up! He's like us! _

"Y-you're a half blood?" I stuttered, completely shocked.

Percy blinked. "I guess that's not what we were talking about." He murmured under his breath. Louder he said, "Yes, I am. But please, please don't tell anyone!"

I steped forward and place a calming hand on his shaking shoulder. "Don't worry, we are too." I say softly.

Percy's green eyes widened to the size of saucers. "W-what?"

I cleared my throat and took a step back. I gestured to our group. "We also have godly blood in us. Except for Grover who is a satyr." Percy looked around wildly, as if seeing us for the first time.

He finally stopped when his gaze fell on Grover. "My best friend is half goat." He stated plainly. Then he bursted into another fit of laughter. He seemed to be in hysterics. Thalia, Nico, Grover and I exchanged looks, obviously wondering if he lost it. Soon after Percy started, however, Grover began to laugh a little as well. Then Nico. Then Thalia. Then me.

By the time we recovered ourselves enough to sit up from where we had fallen on the grass, the tension had been swept over. I turned to Percy who was wiping tears from his eyes, still chuckling softly. "Okay, so I guess we have a lot to talk about." I said, trying to organize my thoughts.

Percy nodded, his smile fading a little. "Right." He cast a gaze across our group. "So should we start with proper introductions?"

I nodded, it seemed like a good enough start. "Alright, good idea, Percy." I stood up and walked over to Percy. I stuck my hand out to him. "Hi, my name is Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena goddess of wisdom and war." It sounded so ridiculous that I couldn't keep the smile off my face.

Percy chuckled. He stood as well and took my hand. "Hello Annabeth Chase. Pleasure to meet you." _Wow, I didn't know Percy could be so formal._ I thought, my eyes widened a little. Percy looked at the others, obviously not going to introduce himself until they did. I shot them a look.

Grover came up. He held his hand out to Percy, who took it without hesitation. "Hey, my name is Grover Underwood, satyr of Camp Half-Blood." Percy nodded and smiled.

Thalia was next. "Thalia Grace, like you already know, daughter of Zeus the king of the gods."

"Nico DiAngelo, son of Hades the god of the Underworld." Percy looked a little shocked. He mumbled something under his breath.

"What?" I asked, curious.

He looked back at me, "Oh nothing. I was just thinking about how weird it is that Thalia, Nico and I are cousins not just by mortal blood, but by godly as well."

My jaw fell open slightly. "You mean you're...-" I trailed off, looking at Percy in a new light.

He nodded and smirked the slightest. "My name is Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon the sea god."

Everyone seemed to freeze. _Poseidon? _I thought in astonishment. I looked around our group, seeing the same shocked face as mine. I cast a glance towards Nico and Thalia. _The children of the Big Three. Altogether. _I couldn't imagine the amount of power radiating from where they stood.

I stepped forward, "Percy, you couldn't have lived for so long without having any training. Your aura would be incredibly powerful to monsters."

He smiled. "Who said I didn't have training?" His eyebrow raised the slightest bit.

"Well I've never heard of you for as long as I have been at Camp Half Bloods, the one safe haven for demigods. And I have been there for most of my life." **(She just went to summer camp and stuff) **

"My mom sent me there for a few weeks once."

"Only a few weeks?" I asked, surprised.

"Well," Percy looked down at the ground. "I didn't really fit in there. My mom told me not to tell anyone about my heritage. She didn't want me to go, but she wanted me to be able to defend myself. Plus I stayed in the Hermes cabin while I was there. That was a nightmare." He tried to crack a smile.

I narrowed my eyes. The explanation would be perfect for anyone, anyone besides Percy. He was to laid-back and selfless to be chased away from camp because of the cabin he was staying in. "Really? Those are the only reasons?" I asked.

Percy looked back up at me. "Yeah, they are." He slowly said. "Why?"

"It just doesn't seem to add up to me for some reason." I explained.

He gazed with his intelligent green eyes at me, as if deliberating whether he should say something or not. Thalia, Nico and Grover were also looking at Percy, as I did. He sighed. "Nothing gets past you, does it Wise Girl?" He muttered. I was surprised by the nickname, and even more at the warm tingling feeling it gave me. "Your right, there is something more."

"Percy, you don't have to hide anything from us anymore. We're with you." Thalia softly reassured.

Percy looked at his cousin with a mixture of hope, family-love and sadness. "My mom wasn't as well as she seemed to be, Thalia. She was depressed, but she tried to hide it from me. Some nights I would wake up to the sound of her crying. I would get up and walk over to her. I'd hug her while she whispered, '"I'm sorry, baby, I'm so sorry."', over and over again. I had no idea what she was apologizing for until one night I caught her in the act.

I had just come into the kitchen to get some water, when I saw my mom standing at the sink. She was shaking and I was about to go up to her and hug her, but then I saw what she had in her hand. A razor. I watched in horror as she cut herself, to scared to move." Percy took a deep breath. I was astonished, _Percy had to go through this? _I thought. Percy continued. "I must've gasped or something because she spun around with wide eyes. She seemed stunned that I had caught her, and a little guilty to. She set the razor in the sink and cleaned out her cut. When she finally came over to me I was trembling. '"Percy,"' I remember her saying. '"Percy, it's okay. Momma just got a little sad for a second. Everything is okay."'. I was about eight at the time, I didn't understand why my mom would've cut herself. I looked up at her, '"Mommy, why did you do that? Cutting yourself hurt didn't it?"' She smiled a strain smiled. '"It does, Percy. Don't you ever do it."'. I still didn't quite get it, but I knew that I didn't want her doing it. She led me back to my room, laying me down and tucking me in. Before she could go, though, I caught her hand. '"Please don't do it again, Momma. Don't hurt yourself, you're too nice to be hurt especially by yourself."' She looked down at me and smiled. She kissed me on my forehead." Percy inhaled deeply again. My eyes had turned watery, _Even when Percy was young he still had a heart of gold. _I thought. Thalia had a heartbroken expression while Nico seemed to be in shock. Grover wore a sad expression. "I-I remember what she said just as she left. I think she thought that I was a sleep. S-she said, '"If I am nice, my little baby, why did he leave?"'. I guess when I was at camp, I was just so worried about her being alone that I had to come back." He concluded.

Percy took a shuddering breath. I couldn't help it anymore. The pain of watching _him _in pain overwhelmed my rational side and I found my arms wrapping around his waist. His body was shaking from the enormous effort it probably took him not to fall apart. He buried his face in my blonde hair I had always disliked. It occurred to me while he stood shaking in my arms, that he was the strongest person I knew. Sure he looked weak at the moment, in the arms of a girl who was only up to his chin, shuddering and shaking like a leaf, gasping for breath. But he wasn't, he was so much stronger than anyone, possibly even the gods. He had been through his mother's depression, the death of his mother, the abuse and pain inflicted by his stepfather, the torment caused by knowing that monsters walked Earth, the pressure of being a son of one of the most powerful gods in ancient mythology, the stress of training to fight monsters, the anxiousness of turning a corner just to find another monster waiting, the daily toll that makes adults break down, and yet he still has kept it together for sixteen long years. He still kept his sanity when most people's would snap like a twig, he kept his natural personality of fun and love even when everything seemed dark. He didn't even let anyone else share his burden. Percy Jackson was the most impressive person I had ever met or heard of.

Percy mumbled things into my hair, most of which I didn't catch, but I was able to make out a few words, "I'm sorry... I don't... weak... need to be strong, but... I... miss... m-mom... why...-" My heart ached for Percy. He tried so hard to be brave and strong when all odds were always against him.

"Shh, shh, Percy. I got you, everything's gonna be alright." I whispered to him, not quite aware of Thalia, Nico and Grover standing around us.

Percy shuddered. "A-Annabeth, I m-miss her s-so much. S-So so much. A-and I j-just want her b-back." I swallowed my own sob at Percy's innocent, almost child-like words. _Most people, _I thought, _would be screaming profanities at whoever died, saying how the person promised to stay. _I smiled a weak, wavering smile. _Not Percy, though._

"I know Percy. I know. It's gonna be okay. We'll figure this out, okay? You and me." I promised as I held him tighter. His arms were wrapped around my waist, much like how mine were wrapped around his.

"Y-yeah, Percy. We're gonna do this thing together. You're not alone, you've got us." said Thalia, placing a comforting hand on Percy's shoulder.

"She's right, Percy." I whispered in his ear. "You've got us now, and we've got you."

Percy finally looked up at me. His green eyes weren't the dull green I usually saw, instead they were lighter, like a huge weight had been lifted from Percy's-already-overburdened-shoulders. Since I was so close I could see flecks of blue and interestingly enough, gold, mixed into his sea green eyes. He looked down at me, "Thank you."

_Line Break~

All five of us lounged around in Nico and Thalia's apartment. It felt good with five people here, complete. Nico was again surfing the TV while Thalia was sprawled on the couch. Grover was in the kitchen like last time while I was lounging on the recliner. Percy was in the kitchen with Grover, probably clearing the fridge of all food. _Boys. _

"Hey guys." I whispered as I leaned over near Thalia and Nico. They leaned towards me as well. "So now that we know that Percy is a half-blood, how are we gonna break it to him that we know that he is abused?"

Thalia frowned. "Well obviously the whole 'persuade' him didn't really work. We were talking about completely different things for most of the conversation."

"We could just do it bluntly, screw the riddles. They just confuse everyone and make it more frustrating." said Nico quite plainly.

"I guess," I sighed, I didn't like my plans not working, "But seeing as how Percy reacted to the first secret, I'm not sure how he's gonna take this one." I weighed the options mentally.

"Oh like it really bothered you having Percy in your arms." Thalia joked lightly, rolling her eyes as she stuffed some potato chips in her mouth.

I blushed a beet red. "No I did not! I was simply comforting a friend." Even I couldn't convince myself I was telling the truth.

Nico snorted. "Sure you were." I glared at Nico fiercely, making him cower. I smirked, _Even a child of Hades is afraid of my glare..._

"How 'bout we just roll with the punches? It's not like planing actually helped us the first time. Percy might even bring it up on his own." I considered Thalia's words.

"I guess."

"What do you guess?" A new voice interrupted our conversation. I turned to see Percy and Grover in the doorway. Grover had a vegetarian enchilada stuffed in his mouth, while Percy had an orange in his hand.

"I guess that you were there for only the last few seconds of our conversation, right?" I asked.

Percy shrugged and sat down on the floor by Thalia's couch. "You guess correctly. What were you guys talking about?" He started to peel the orange. Grover sat down next to Percy.

"Stuff..." I trailed off, not knowing which way we were approaching this situation. I didn't need to.

"By the way, I was wondering what you guys talking about when you said that 'you knew my secret' or something like that?" Percy raised an eyebrow. "Because obviously you weren't talking about being a demigod."

Everyone nervously looked around the room. "Um, okay. Look," Nico started off. "We were a little worried about you." Percy looked curious, but didn't interrupt. "A-and so-" I cut him off.

"And so we sorta went up to Rhode Island, your old home. **(I know Montauk is in Long Island and Long Island is in New York, but I'm just gonna keep it Rhode Island)** We met Grover there."**  
**

"Then when we came home, we started to watch and compare notes on what we thought was wrong. You just weren't the boy I remembered, Perce." Thalia said. Percy grimaced.

"When we finally had enough with not getting any answers... we uh, well we sorta followed you after school one day." admitted Grover sheepishly.

"So that's what I heard..." Percy raised an eyebrow at us, probably thinking of the many times we ran into things.

I nodded, embarrassed. "So we followed you into Bramford and..." I looked at pointedly at where Percy probably still had a bruise on his shoulder from where Gabe hit him.

His shoulders tensed and his green eyes grew slightly panicked. "You saw." It wasn't a question. I sighed sadly and nodded. He sucked in a sharp breath. "So that's what you guys were talking about." We all watched him, waiting for an outburst or something.

"Yeah, Perce, we saw." Grover said sadly.

"Please, Percy. You can't keep this in. Someone has to know! _We_ can't let this happen anymore!" Thalia pleaded.

Percy shook his head slightly. "You don't understand, Thals." His voice was broken, like the shattered remains of a mirror. "I don't have anyone else. My mom died, and I certainly can't go to my sire." I noticed that he didn't say the word, dad.

"You could come live with us, of course! We're your family, too!" Thalia insisted.

Percy sighed. "No, Thalia, I can't. I am under the age of eighteen and therefore can't switch permanent residence without my 'guardian's' permission. And there's no chance in Hades he'd let me go that easily."

I frowned. "Why not? He abuses you, so he can't like you all too much. No offense or anything!" I quickly added.

"Oh he doesn't like me, that's for sure." Percy resumed peeling his orange, not meeting any of our eyes. "But he does like the paycheck that comes in the mail every few weeks. Some kind of pact my mom made with the government, I think." Percy squirmed uncomfortably. "It's probably the only reason Gabe has kept me around."

My vision turned red. _How dare someone do this to Percy! I'm gonna kill Gabe. _I thought murderously. I felt my hands clench into fists. "I will kill him." I hissed under my breath. By the looks of the others, I could see that they were thinking the same thing.

I exhaled loudly, thinking of ways to get Percy out of this. "Percy," I started. "You can't move permanent residence without your _guardian's _permission, but you can if we bring the fact that your guardian is abusing you to court. We could get you set free from this monster if we win the case."

Percy snorted. "And then where would I go? I can't legally go to Thalia and Nico, they're minors, too. Plus I don't have any other living relatives."

Thalia scrunched her forehead in thought. "What if we use the Mist? Make it look like Nico and I are older than we really are?"

His black hair fell in his face as Percy shook his head. "No way. It would catch up to us eventually."

"Why don't you ask Poseidon for help?" Grover, the ever optimistic satyr, suggested.

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Like he helped oh so much before. He let my mom suffer from depression when he could've helped her, he let her d-die, and he didn't lift a finger when I went to live with Gabe. Why would he possibly help me now?" His voice was bitter, a tone I didn't like coming from him. _He should be happy, _I thought sadly, _Not bitter._

Grover sighed. "Right." We all slumped, stumped on the problem at hand.

Percy glanced at the clock and jumped. "Oh my gods! It's four?! I gotta go!" He was at the door in a flash. "Thank you guys," He said, turning his head to face us. "We'll figure this out, but I can't risk being late again. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"Wait, Percy! Don't go back to Gabe! Stay!" Thalia pleaded.

"Sorry, Thals." He turned and sprinted out, leaving us stunned in the living room.

Thalia's bottom lip started to quiver. I never thought I'd see the day she'd cry. I stood up and hugged her. She started to shake, tears slowly streaking down her face. "H-he ca-can't go b-back. H-he'll be be-beat-ten."

Tears started to make their way down my face as well, the stress, frustration and utter despair for Percy getting to me. "I-I know, T-Thals. B-But Percy's Percy. He'll m-make it." I managed to stutter.

I felt another pair of arms wrap around us, holding us in a brotherly hug. "It's okay, you guys. Percy is the strongest person I know, if anyone can make it out of this mess, he can." Nico comforted, a slight waver in his words. I tightened my hold on Thalia with one arm as my other wound around Nico. I looked over my shoulder to see Grover staring at the floor, moisture threatening to fall in his brown eyes. I held my hand out to him, a silent offer of comfort. We made eye contact from across the room. He shakily got up and joined our group hug.

"W-we can do this, guys." Grover mumbled.

"Yeah, we c-can." Thalia agreed, trying to sound confident as she hugged us tighter.

"We can, and we will." Nico said.

We stayed that way for a while, taking comfort in each others presences. I finally pulled away. "We'll make it through this, but to do that we need to figure out a plan." The others nodded. "We need to bring this to court."

"We'll need evidence." Nico said.

"Lots of it." Thalia added.

"Are we going to get a lawyer?" asked Grover.

"Yes, I think we should. It's not like court would take a couple of sophomores seriously." My head swam with thought. "We would need evidence to show a lawyer first, a starter to make him or her believe us."

"I don't mean to be a downer, but how are we going to be able to afford a lawyer?" Grover nervously asked.

"Dude, I'm the son of Hades. You know, god of the Underworld and riches under the Earth?" Nico said. "I'm pretty sure I can come up with a few bars of gold."

"Tomorrow we should start." I said bluntly. "I would suggest we start tonight, but I don't think any of us are in a stable enough state of mind."

They nodded in agreement. Thalia turned to face me. "Why don't you call your dad, Annabeth? Ask if you can stay over, we can use the pull-out couch and stuff."

_Line Break~

"Annabeth, you know it's the only way!" Nico begged me.

I shook my head. "No! We've kept too many things from Percy. I hate doing this to him."

Nico sent a pleading look at Thalia. "Please, Thalia. You know Percy! He wouldn't let us see him weak, especially in pain!"

Thalia crossed her arms. "I think Annabeth's right. We've kept too much from Percy already, why should we keep it a secret that we're trying to help him?"

Grover cut in then. "Guys, Nico does raise a good point. Percy wouldn't allow us to see him in pain, I know him better than anyone else here." Grover sent Thalia an apologetic look when she seemed to flinch.

I tried to stand my ground, but the logic was working on me. Desperately, I played my last card. "How are we supposed to follow him without him knowing. He found out we're demigods, so he'll be suspicious if he hears just one sound."

Grover holds up his panpipes in response. I sighed, it made sense. I could see that Thalia also was defeated by the way her shoulders slumped.

Sadly, Thalia nodded. "Yeah, yeah, okay." A little fire came back into her eyes. "But after this, no more secrets." Everyone else couldn't agree more.

_Line Break~

It was ten when we finally settled down for the night. The stars shone brightly through the windows as I curled up in a blanket, exhausted from the day's events. As I felt the tendrils of sleep pull me to my dreams, I made a vow to Percy. _We will make it through this, Percy. You and me.__  
_

**Hello, so that is it for this chapter. I'm sorry it took me so long to update, I was really busy. Review if you'd like, there is no pressure. Same goes for following and stuff like that. I'll be updating as soon as I can, until then, take it easy. U got 2 get up 2 get down**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello, guys! Thanks for reviewing and following me! Kate, Haha, sorry that I made it so depressing, but hey, you got to get down to get up. Your comment really made me laugh! FangirlAlertWatchOut, I will definitely put more Percabeth in the story soon, but it would be a little weird if they suddenly start kissing out of the blue! :) Doughnutswilderness, Haha, thanks! It would be fun if it had a thumbs up button! Trystal, I will! Finally, Beeimahalblood, Thank you so much! Your compliment made me feel really good! Thank all of you guys so much for reading! I really appreciate your encouragement, and comments! Just as a head's up, there are going to be 'new' characters ;) in this chapter. I'm sure you'll all figure their true identities out soon enough, but I will say that they were all from the Percy Jackson books.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any of the characters. All rights go to Rick Riordan.**

**Percy's POV**

_They know. They know! _My thoughts ran like wildfire as I walked away from Thalia's apartment. I couldn't believe it. My two most guarded secrets were shared with four other people. Two of them were my cousins, so I guessed it was okay. One was my life-long friend, so that was fine, too. _But the last one? That Annabeth girl?_ I had known her for barely over a month! I couldn't trust her quite yet. The only thing that had kept me from a full panic-attack was the fact that they all were demigods, too. Just like me. I sighed and kicked a can as I walked down an alley. It clattered loudly down the alley. _Could I actually trust her? _I thought. I knew I wanted to. I really, really wanted to. _There is something about the way her hair shines in the light, like curly strands of gold. The way her eyes would sparkle and laugh, even when she tried to keep a straight face. The way she could get so lost in thought in a matter of seconds. Of course, _I thought dryly, _her mom is the goddess of wisdom._

I checked my watch and cursed in ancient Greek. I was reallly, really late! Gabe wouldn't like that! I started jogging, trying to stay at a regular mortals pace. I sprinted up the steps to Bramford's front door. I quickly pulled out my key and entered after unlocking the door. I flew up the flights of stairs, only to stop dead right outside my door. I didn't want to go in. Not when I knew exactly what was waiting for me. I sighed, _It's not like I have a choice._

Slowly I entered the apartment and waited for the pain to begin. Nothing happened. I sucked in a breath. This was not normal. I slowly took out Riptide, my ballpoint pen that transforms into a sword, out of my pocket. I had gotten Riptide when I started at Camp Half-Blood. Chiron had said it was a gift from my father, and at first I was mad. Furious, actually. I didn't understand how my 'father' could let my mother suffer such pain, then have the nerve to think that a stupid old sword made up for it. I had refused it and trained with other weapons. Of course, when there was a lose hellhound during one of the capture-the-flag games, I had to use it to kill it. Then I guess it just sorta stuck with me, I trained with it for quite a few years till I had nearly mastered it.

I crept around the corner of the kitchen, just waiting for something to jump out at me. My ADHD made me want to start charging through the apartment, but I controlled it with some difficulty. As I stepped over the empty bear bottles and moldy, pizza boxes, I couldn't help but think about how disgusting that place was. _Where is Gabe? He should be here with his poker buddies by now. _I thought anxiously. Gabe wouldn't have missed out on a game unless something really major happened. I sucked in a deep breath when I saw a bear bottle roll around the corner. Something was in there, and I doubted it was Gabe. My hands, steady from years of practice and experience, uncapped Riptide. With my glowing, bronze sword ready, I swiftly turned the corner.

I sucked in a silent breath. With their backs turned, was a group of eight warriors. Definitely demigods. They were all dressed in dark clothes and had sharp swords in their hands. I backed up, suddenly nervous. Yeah, I got a few weeks of training and did a lot on my own, but I was still pretty inexperienced when fighting other demigods. _I hate fighting other half-bloods. _I thought grimly as I steadied my nerves. _Plus they seem pretty experienced. _I quickly looked around the corner again. They all were taller and better built than I was, so I was guessing older too. _Although, _I thought nervously, _didn't I see eight? Why are there only six. _I shrugged it off, probably my ADHD brain.

I was about to attack, trying to keep the element of surprise on my side. It was the only way to get them out of the apartment. I was a little unsettled, were they looking for me? _Of course they were! What are the odds that six heavily armed demigods what just happen to show up at my apartment the one day there isn't a mortal present? _I was so distracted by my thoughts that I had accidently pushed a button on my phone somehow and it was calling someone. I cursed as it started ringing, so not good for a sneak attack. I was so busy trying to shut it off that I didn't notice the two missing demigods sneaking up behind me. That is, until my arms were yanked together behind my back and I was forced to my knees. I yelled out in surprise, but one of the demigods simply slapped his hand over my mouth. The other six came around the corner. I could feel a tight cord being wrapped securely around my wrists and upper arms. I glared up at the six in front of me, but didn't say anything.

"What," The lead demigod asked mockingly. "No, 'Who are you?' or 'What do you want?'" He grinned.

I smirked slightly. "Nope." I popped my 'p'. "I assumed you would tell me anyway. Why waste my breath?"

The demigod smirked. "I like you, or hate you." He shrugged nonchalantly. "My name is Nat Klue." He threw his hood back to reveal a cruel face. He had short blond hair and icy blue eyes. His most prominent feature was a scar on the side of his face. "My companions will introduce themselves when we get back."

My eyes narrowed. "Back where?"

Nat smiled, and laughed evilly. "Back to the base, of course." Then everything went dark so fast that I barely noticed that my phone had fallen out of my pocket and on to the floor where it was hidden by trash.

_Line Break~

**Annabeth's POV  
**

I was getting anxious. _Where is Percy? _I kept thinking over and over. It was Tuesday morning and Thalia, Grover, Nico and I had all been waiting by Percy's locker for him. We still needed to talk and figure out how to win our court case. I glanced nervously at the clock, seven more minutes until homeroom.

"Where is he?" Thalia finally broke the silence. She scanned the hallways.

"I don't get it." Mumbled Grover. "His emotions were a little scattered yesterday, but it wasn't something that would keep him home. Especially with Gabe." He ended venomously.

I looked around. "Has anyone heard from Percy since we last saw him?" Our group shared anxious looks and shook their heads. "Okay, let's all check our phones then, to start off." I ordered as I whipped out my cell phone. No message. I looked at the others. Grover shook his head as he put his phone back in his bag. Nico also shook his head. I turned towards Thalia, and instantly was filled with concern. She was as pale as a sheet of paper. She held her blue phone in shaking hands. I took a step towards her, about to ask what was wrong, but she shook her head and pointed outside. I nodded and followed her to Percy and my tree.

As so as we got there Nico rushed over to Thalia. "You okay there, Thals?"

Again she shook her head. Instead of answering our unspoken questions, she pressed a button on her phone. Immediately I knew it was a voice message. "I like you, or hate you. My name is Nat Klue." Said an icy cold voice. "My companions will introduce themselves when we get back." My heart stuttered. _What was this man talking about? _My eyes met the just as frantic glances of my friends. _What was going on?_

A new voice was heard, one I instantly recognized as Percy. "Back where?" His voice was strong and held power. It was the voice I imagined the non-abused Percy would have.

The man's, or Nat's I supposed, laugh echoed through the receiver. "Back to the base, of course." Then there was a thump, like something hitting the floor. We all looked at each other in alarm.

A silky, melodious voice danced from the phone. "Nat, he's out cold. The drugs should keep him under for a day or two. We're going on a plane, right?"

Nat seemed to sigh. "No, Aura, we can't fly. He's the son of Poseidon, remember? We can't take him in the air without getting blown to bits."

"Oh, right." Aura said. "So, how are we getting back to base, then?"

"We take a train for the first half. Then we'll take a car the rest of the way."

"A limo, right?"

Nat let out an irritated groan. "No we aren't taking a limo! We're trying to keep a low profile!"

Aura snorted, "Like one limo would attract that much attention."

"We aren't taking any chances with this mission. We can't risk failing this one, it is key."

A new voice piped up. "It's true, Aura. Just deal with it for two days!" This voice was impish and mischievous.

The voices started to grow fainter. The last thing we heard was Aura, "Shut it, Los."

We all stared at each other dumbly, all wondering the same thing. _What happened to Percy?_ My mind went into over-drive. _What happened to Percy? What were those names? Nat Klue, Aura and Los. How many were there? When was the message recorded? They said a train and a car, obviously they're traveling a long distance to their base. Where is their base? Los said Aura would have to suck it up for two days. Two days, one on the train one in a car since Nat said they'd cut it in half. _The less sensible side of me was screaming bloody murder. _Those bastards better not have touched Percy! I swear, I will find them and make them pay. _I could feel rage start to cloud my vision. I tried to clear my head, but all I could think about was how much I hated Nat and all the rest. _I will kill them! Let them endure the Fields of Punishment!_ My mind racing, I gently (as I could) took Thalia's phone out of her frozen hand. I glanced at the phone long enough to see that the message was recorded 5:00pm yesterday. _That means that Nat, Aura, Los and whoever else was with them had about a fourteen hour head-start... _My thoughts continued to sprint around and around.

"Percy..." The soft whisper of Percy's name escaped Thalia's lips. "P-Percy... no. No, no, no, no!" Thalia suddenly unfroze and started pacing furiously. "We gotta get him back, we gotta save him!"

Grover looked broken. "Thalia... we don't even-"

"SHUT UP! I don't give a CRAP what we 'don't even'! I don't give a _freaking_ crap!" All eyes snapped to Thalia, surprised by the sudden hostility. She herself looked surprised. "I-I'm so sorry, Grover! I didn't mean to say that! I-I was just mad and scared and I...-" She gazed pleadingly into Grover's soft brown eyes.

He nodded gently. "I get it, Thalia. I shouldn't have been so insensitive." I smiled at the warmth and sincerity in his voice.

"T-Thanks, Grover." Thalia sighed and turned to face all of us. "What I was trying to say before, was that I'm not going to stop until my cousin is safe with me. I don't give a crap**(Sorry, didn't want to curse)** about what anyone else says. I'm going to find him, save him and kick whoever kidnapped him to Tartarus." Her electric blue eyes gleamed dangerously. "Those people are going to face the power of the sky."

Nico, who had been quietly standing in the back of our group, spoke up. "And I'll help you, Thalia. Whoever hurts my cousin, I don't care who it is, _will_ face the wrath of the Underworld." He spoke quietly, but viciously.

I nodded in consent without hesitation. "I will help you. I already have some facts from the voice message, those demigods just made an enemy of wisdom."

"Don't forget about the strength of the Wild." Grover chimed in.

_Line Break~

Thalia, Nico, Grover and I sat nervously at our lunch table. We hadn't known if we would be telling the others about Percy's abuse, but our situation called for as much help as we could get. For some reason, my emotions were still slightly out of control. _How dare they even touch Percy! MY Percy! MY Seaweed Brain! _I was slightly comforted, if not for a second, with the use of Percy's nickname. I had called him that once when we were doing our homework under our tree. I remembered the cute little face he made when he was confused. After twenty minutes of enduring his cute looks and pleads for help, I finally caved and helped him. That was the first time I called him 'Seaweed Brain' and the first time he called me 'Wise Girl' after a while they just stuck. _And now I could never hear them again. _I thought, then, _No! Bad Annabeth, don't think like that! Percy is going to be fine. We'll rescue him, then kill those demigods._

"Hey guys, why are you so glum lookin'?" The joyful voice of Leo pulled us out of our thoughts.

"Oh, hey Leo." I said, trying to seem as normal as possible.

I obviously failed because Leo put down his sandwich and leaned towards us. "Hey, are you guys okay? Seriously?" His voice was now serious, a rare occasion for Leo.

Thalia swallowed. "We have something to tell you, but we need to wait till the rest of the gang gets here." Leo raised an eyebrow, still serious.

Five minutes into lunch, our gang all appeared. Piper and Jason were second after Leo. They were smiling and holding hands, I didn't want to ruin their afternoon. Then there was Hazel and Frank, followed by a stone-faced Reyna. She turned even more cold when she noticed Jason's arm slung lovingly around Piper's shoulders. They all started to talk about their day, completely unaware that Thalia, Nico, Grover and I were on edge the entire time. By the middle of lunch I couldn't take it anymore. Someone had to tell them.

"Guys, we have something to tell you." Everyone turned to look at me. I gulped.

Hazel leaned towards me. "Of course, Annabeth."

"Is something wrong?" Piper asked, her eyes worried.

Thalia sighed. "Nothing's wrong with us. But there is something wrong with Percy."

"What do you mean?" said the concerned voice of Jason. He was obviously worried about his sister and cousin.

"It's gonna take a little while to explain." I said, rubbing my temples. I blew out a big breath. "Okay, where to start?" I glanced at Thalia for help.

She blew out a breath. "Okay, so you know how we thought something was wrong with Percy a month or so back?" The gang nodded, slightly confused. "Well we were right. Something was, and still is wrong."

"What is it?" Frank asked, his eyebrows bunched up in concern.

Nico took a deep breath, "Percy... Percy... is a demigod!" I cursed Nico under my breath. Leave it to him to chicken-out.

Reyna raised an arrogant eyebrow. "Being a demigod is wrong? How so?" Her voice was cold, just like her eyes.

"That, is not what we were going to say." I cast a look towards Nico, who shrunk back. "Yes, Percy is a demigod, but there is nothing wrong with being a demigod. It is the fact that Percy is... abused." I scanned my friends' faces. Leo, his usual happy, care-free face was dark. I realized that Leo must've met some people like that in his run-away days. Piper was starting to shake, the shock slowly melting, becoming sadness and anger. She turned into Jason's chest, trying to muffle a sob that escaped her. Jason wasn't much better. He circled Piper in a fierce hug, almost like he was trying to assure himself that Piper was still there. Hazel was clinging onto Frank who also had his arms wrapped around her. Hazel was muttering under her breath, while Frank whispered to her. Reyna was frozen. Her eyes wide with shock that hadn't completely worn off.

Piper turned to face us, her eyes were red. "H-how bad?"

I grimaced as Thalia gulped. "Bad. Really, really bad." I said, not wanting to think of the beating we had witnessed. Jason hugged Piper as tears slowly ran down her face. I knew we were al thinking of those child abuse reports in the news.

"I'm g-guessing i-it was G-Gabe." Hazel said, her hand clutched tightly onto Frank's.

Grover nodded sadly.

"How long?" Leo asked, his voice uneven. I sighed, I didn't want to answer that question.

"Percy has been abused for as long as he lived with Gabe, I think." Grover said, his voice filling with hatred.

"Which would be around three years then." Reyna said. When I looked into her eyes, I saw a cold detachment, like three years of harsh abuse didn't impress her.

"Yes, three years of getting beaten to the brink of unconsciousness and possibly even death, _every_ day." I replied sharply. "Which would be around," I mocked Reyna's voice, "one thousand ninety-five and seventy-three hundredths days." She gaped at me, clearly not expecting that. I would usually be surprised at the venom in my own voice too, I was always the cool, calm and collected one of the group, but that time, I was not. _We are talking about Percy, my Percy. No one is going mock him in such a hurtful, detached way. _I bit my lip as I thought this. What was happening to me?

Jason turned to Reyna in a burst of anger. "Reyna! Don't you dare talk about my cousin like it doesn't matter that he was abused for three years!" My respect for Jason Grace just had sky-rocketed. I could tell by the look Piper gave him, that Piper was just as proud. Jason shrugged when he saw his girlfriend look at him like that, like he was saying _I should've done that a long time ago. _He then proceeded to kiss her on the nose.

As I looked around at everyone else's face, I was surprised by the amount of emotion they felt. Hazel looked about ready to go murder Gabe, while one glance at Frank told me that he would help. Piper had her eyes clenched shut, her hands fisted by her side. The way she was muttering under her breath let me know that she wasn't going to stop until Gabe was begging for mercy. The fire in Jason's usually calm blue eyes, gave me enough of a hint to know what he planned to do. Even Reyna had her face set in a angered scowl. I realized then that they had grown close to Percy in the time he had been here. I had just been to preoccupied to see it.

"But you see, we need to tell you something else. We found this out this morning." I said. Everyone's head jerked towards me, their eyes still filled with barely controlled anger. "Listen to this." I gestured at Thalia.

Thalia had already gotten her phone out. The gang swiveled to look at her as she pressed a button on her phone. The message was replayed. I watched my friend's reactions carefully. They all went through a series of emotions, but the ending result was the same. Rage.

We all just looked at each other for a few minutes, our friends trying to process the information while Thalia, Nico, Grover and I tried to accept it. After a while I spoke up. "We need your help. Please." My voice broke pathetically, "We need to get Percy back."

Piper was the first to get over her shock. "Of course we'll help! We love Percy, too." Even though her voice was quiet, it made all the difference. It was true, they loved Percy as well. I had been too busy to notice as the looks they gave Percy went from polite, to friendly, to brotherly/sisterly loving. The rest of the group must've felt the same empathy, because they were looking at each other in a different light.

I smiled, "Im not one to ditch, but I think Percy is a little more important then end-of the year studying."

"Of course Percy is!" Thalia exclaimed. "Why don't we all go over to Nico and my apartment, and we can figure this out? And more importantly, figure out how to get my cousin back!"

We left without a second thought.

_Line Break~

By ten at night, we had most of it figured out. With a few Iris-messages to Chiron and even a few gods, we knew that Nat Klue, Aura and Los used to be campers at Camp Half-Blood. Their story was twisted and hard to follow, but that was why we had decided to go to Camp Half-Blood the next day. To Hades with school, it's not like we couldn't make up the work anyway. Chiron had agreed to tell us their story in full, when we got there. I could tell he was curious as to why we were asking, but I told him we would explain when we got to camp.

By eleven at night, we had concluded, that it would be easier not to tell our mortal parents. They would try only try to stop us, and we didn't need them on our backs while we chased after Percy. Usually my rational side would be screaming at me, yelling at what an idiot I was for pulling this stunt. But, it wasn't. Not that time, because it knew that Percy was more important to me than anything else. I would run across all seven continents for my Seaweed Brain. I fight any half-blood, monster, god or titan for him. I don't know how, but I knew Percy would do it for me, too. That was the night I realized I was in love with Percy Jackson.

_Line Break~ **Percy's POV**

As I was bounced around in a dark, small space, I realized just how scary this was. I didn't know when I could see daylight again, I didn't know when I could sneak out to the beach again, I didn't know when I could visit my mother's grave again. I missed Thalia and her strong personality, I missed Nico and his quiet strength. I missed Grover and his optimistic personality. I missed Piper with her gentle, yet strong attitude. I missed Jason and his calm demeanor. I missed Hazel with her loving and caring eyes. I missed Frank with his beliefs and strength. I missed Leo and his funny, care-free personality. Hades, I even missed Reyna and her snappy remarks. Most of all, though, I missed Annabeth. Her beautiful, grey eyes that shined with intelligence. Her blond hair that turned gold in the sun. Her athletic build, and sweet smile. Her strong, individual character that made her who she was. I missed her light laugh that lifted anyone's spirit. I missed Annabeth. It was then, in the little box I was shoved into, my wrists and arms still bound, that I realized that I was in love with Annabeth Chase. The scariest part, was that I didn't know if I would ever be able to tell her.

_Line Break~

**Hello. Sorry that I sort of rushed Annabeth and Percy's love life. I needed to get it established. Again, thank you very much for the reviews. You don't have to review if you don't want to, but you are welcome to as well. I hope this chapter was satisfactory. I'm sorry about the change in the plot, but I really wanted to make this different from the other abuse stories. It will still come around to the abuse in the end, but I wanted to put some action in the middle. As I said before, Nat Klue and his little group, _are_ people from the books. I didn't make them up, just their new names. I'm sure you all will figure their identities out, but I love a little mystery! Thank you again for reviewing, and following! Take it easy, U got 2 get down 2 get up**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hello! Thank you for reading! AustinWritesThePJBooks, Thanks! I don't plan to stop writing anytime soon, especially after your comment! Thank you for your request! ChiVall, I'd love to tell you everything, but I probably shouldn't seeing that everyone could read it. Although I suppose it's safe to admit that yes, one of them is Luke. On the Ethan Nakamura part, well I can't reveal all my secrets... Sorry. ebookboss121, I'm really happy you like it, although I am sorry it this story makes you cry... I'm glad that you don't think percabeth is rushed, I was really hoping it wouldn't be! Kate, Haha, sorry, Percy... :) I'm glad you like the Percabeth moments, I think they're a great couple. I will definitely consider your idea of Annabeth saving Percy. I love cliched moments, they make life more interesting! I will update as much as I can, Thank you! Finally, Beeimahalfblood, Haha, your comments always make me smile! They will be starting their mission soon, and it's okay to fangirl uncontrollably! :) By the way, ChiVall, I will give you, and everyone reading, a hint: All of the names I made up, they are connected somehow to the original name. ;) Good luck! Thank you guys for reviewing, it is highly appreciated!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any of the characters, all rights belong to Rick Riordan**

**Thalia's POV  
**

It was dead silent in the car. No one spoke, all to absorbed in our own thoughts. I hadn't even turned on the radio, which was a rare occasion for me. _Percy, why does it happen to you? Why do you, of all people in this messed up, crazy world, why do you have to hold this burden? How can you be strong enough to hold the weight of the world on your shoulders while still forcing yourself to live? While still forcing yourself to breath, and move forward? _I grimaced, I would never be that strong.

"Guys, get ready, we're almost there." Annabeth's voice snapped me out of my stupor. _What? Right, right, talk to Chiron._I sighed heavily at the thought of listening to some, long, meaningless story when I _should_ be chasing my cousin to wherever Nat Klue was taking him. I would've just refused to listen to him and stormed off to Percy, but unfortunately the logic was working on me. The more I knew about these half-bloods, the easier it would be to track them down to wherever they were.

_I won't lose Percy, not again. _I thought as I trudged up the hill with my duffle bag. Stuffed in the bag were all the necessities I need for a quest, minus Aegis which was around my wrist. **(I know Aegis is just a shield, but I think I will put it as a shield and spear because it would take to long to explain both weapons separately)** It contained a sleeping mat, nectar, ambrosia, regular food, mood, drachmas and a map. I had already lost him once. (When he had moved in with Gabe no one told me where he went, I would've called the police if Percy hadn't called every few weeks.)

"Ah, welcome, children." I looked up sharply to meet the timeless eyes of my teacher, Chiron. I was a little annoyed with the "children" remark, but I figured the sooner we got this over, the sooner we'd find Percy.

"Chiron, it's great to see you again." Annabeth commented as she quickly hugged him. I nodded respectfully, not wasting time. The others followed my example. **(I'm just pretending that Hazel, Jason, Reyna, Hazel and Frank all started off there.)**

"Well," Chiron started gravely, "I know that you are all anxious to get on your way, so we won't waste time with pleasantries." He started walking off towards the big house. We followed closely behind as he started his story of Nat Klue. "Ah, Nat Klue, where to start?"

"How 'bout from the beginning?" Leo asked, trying to lighten the mood, if not slightly.

"Of course, Leo." Chiron smiled down from where his centaur form towered over us. "Nat Klue came to this camp when he was about ten years old. **(I don't no how old the original character was... sorry. If you're trying to guess who he is, don't go by age!)** He was an exceptional warrior, and seemed to excel at everything. His best fighting skill, however, was with a sword. I had never seen such an natural ease. He was a true swordsman. As the months passed by, Nat became restless. He wanted a quest of his own you see, a way to prove himself to the gods. Especially his father."

"Who was his father?" Annabeth asked.

Chiron looked at her sadly. "All in due time, child." He looked grave and sad, like he was being forced to keep a secret. He cleared his throat. "Anyway, when Nat turned thirteen, he finally got a quest. He completed it, but with some difficulty. He was scarred, forever reminded of what he had to do for the gods. As he grew older, his resentment grew as well. By the age of sixteen he had a full-blown hatred brewing inside. By then, a few other campers had felt it too. Nat was quite popular back then, his followers were extremely loyal." Chiron sighed, and opened the door to the Big House. We all filed in, waiting for the next part. Chiron stood behind the ping-pong table as us demigods sat down in chairs. "I'm not certain when this happened, but we have found out in the two years he's been gone, that Nat had received a dream from the titan lord."

Everyone gasped, knowing exactly who this "titan lord" was. Annabeth muttered, "Kronos." The room seemed to darken, and it felt like it dropped a few degrees. Chiron nodded gravely.

"Yes, Annabeth. Nat immediately was on his side, bitter from the years of being ignored by his father. He didn't see the world as a stage to act and thrive, instead he saw an old stage to be torn down. Nat was loyal to _him_, doing anything and everything to exact revenge on the gods. He soon was able to convince his loyal followers to come to his side of thinking. This resulted on a fierce battle between our own campers. In the end, Nat took his remaining followers and disappeared. We have been able to rebuild in the last two years without him, but it is hard. Some of Nat's followers were very close to the people in this camp, and my campers still grieve for their lost family members."

"So, it was like brother turned on brother?" Frank asked, stunned.

Hazel took his hand and gently squeezed it. "Like the Civil War." Chiron nodded.

Annabeth looked deep in thought. "Chiron, who were the people who left with Nat? I don't remember Nat enough to know his friends."

Chiron sighed, "They were great campers. All special in their own ways, and all dangerous. There was Nat Klue, the leader of the group, Aura Nelia, an expert pegasus rider and a skilled spy, and Los Ira, a mischievous young man. There was also Roz Shri, a warrior to say the least, Sam Kea, an unbelievable mechanic and Mak Haten, a boy who always kept to himself. Anna Red, a persuasive charm speaker who specializes in manipulation, and Cert Ele, an experienced and deadly archer. There are many others, but they are the most connected to camp."

"How so?" I surprised myself by asking the question. I wanted to find Percy so badly, but I also needed to figure out these suspicious characters. I needed to know how to defeat them.

"Well, Nat had connections everywhere and had been quite influential to everyone. Aura Nelia had been the head counselor of the Aphrodite Cabin and had dated the head counselor of the Hephaestus cabin. Most are surprised he didn't side with his girlfriend." Chiron added as an afterthought. "Los Ira was very close to his cabin mates. Especially his twin brother. Those two did everything together, from causing trouble with the Demeter cabin to fleeing the scence afterwards. I never thought he would go." Our camp activities director looked sad and depressed. "As for Roz Shri, he was in the same cabin as Los. He had a girlfriend who was a fierce, independent fighter. They were very close and had been through many things together. Although they seemed like a perfect couple, it's not hard to believe that she choose what she thought was right over her boyfriend. No matter what people say about her, she'll make the right decisions in the end. Anna Red was, how would children put it? A flirt? Anyway, she was quite aware she was beautiful thanks to her mother Aphrodite. SHe used her beauty as a weapon, since she really can't handle anything else. Finally Cert Ele. He was head of the Apollo cabin for a while, but stepped down for Michael Yew eventually."

"What about Sam Kea and Mak Haten?" Nico asked, his foot was tapping.

"I'm getting to that. Sam Kea was in the Hephaestus cabin. He was a brilliant mechanic and could build practically anything and everything out of anything and everything."

Leo raised his eyebrow at the sentence but didn't comment.

"Finally, Mak Haten. He was unclaimed, therefore he was put into the Hermes cabin. I assume that is where Nat met him. Mak didn't have a very big connections that I know of, but he is quiet with everything he does, and I wouldn't be surprised if he had just as many connections as Nat does." Chiron finished.

"Chiron," Annabeth started. "Do you mind if we meet them? Personally?" He nodded and was about to say something before I cut in.

"No!" I practically yelled. Every blinked at me in confusion except Nico who obviously was following my train of thought. "No way! We're not wasting anymore time here when Percy could be halfway across the country by now!" Nico nodded in agreement.

"Thalia, we don't even know where he's going. We need to find out before we go blindly searching the entire USA." Annabeth reasoned.

I shook my head firmly. "No, we've wasted too much time. They already had a good head start without our little road trip up to camp. Now they're a good day and a quarter ahead of us."

"Look," Nico joined in. "It's good to know our enemy, but we can't let them get so far ahead of us. We already know that Nat's trip to his base would take two days. That means that it's probably on the other side of the country, most likely a dangerous place for demigods."

"Wait, wait, wait." Leo said, shaking his hands in the air. "Why would their base be in a place where it's dangerous for half-bloods? They're demigods, too."

"But," Annabeth said quietly. "They are sided with a titan. Which would guarantee them safe passage to the most dangerous place for us." Something clicked in her brain and her head snapped up. "Which would be in California, the farthest place from New York, also Mount Olympus, besides Hawaii or Alaska. And it would take more than two days to get to either of those states without a plane."

"So they've gotta be heading somewhere in California!" Jason summed up nicely. He hugged Piper to his side.

"Yes, they're going to California, but where more specifically?" Hazel muttered, her eyes lowered in thought.

Annabeth was quiet for a minute or two, but then her eyes flashed with comprehension. "Where is the most dangerous place in California?" She asked.

"For demigods?" Chiron said. "Anywhere can be quite infested with monsters."

"Yes, but there has to be a certain place where it is worse than the others, right?" Annabeth pressed.

"I suppose so..." Chiron trailed off.

Annabeth sighed. "Mount Tam is. It is a sacred place to the Marin Country, therefore it has a natural power essence that draws monster's attention. Since it is 2,574 feet high, it would also make a great base for a certain Nat Klue. What warrior _wouldn't_ want the high grounds?" She quiets for a minute. "It makes sense." I wanted to ask why _exactly_ she knew those trivial things, but at that point I didn't really care to much.

Chiron grimaced. "Bad things have been rumored to happen there, children. If you are to go there, be warned, it is not a pleasant place for a demigod.

"We already knew that, Chiron." Annabeth said gently. "We know the risks of being a half-blood, we've all lived with them."

"Will you all go?" Chiron inquired. We exchanged glances.

"Nine half-bloods and a satyr will attract many monsters." Jason stated plainly.

"We could split up into groups of three like regular quests, and Grover could go with one of them." Hazel suggested.

"Who would go with who, then?" Leo asked nervously. "No offense guys, but if we don't make the right groups, well we're going to be pretty useless."

"Leo is right, chose wisely with who you travel with. It could be fatal." Chiron advised gravely. "I must attend to other matters, but if you decide to meet Nat, Aura, Los, Roz, Mak and Sam's connections, they are all at camp." He gave us all a hug and trotted nervously out the door.

"Well guys, what should we do?" Nico sighed.

"I think we should split into the three groups Hazel suggested. Two of the groups should head out towards Mount Tam. One group should remain here and meet Nat's connections. I think each group should know each other well, too." Annabeth said.

"Yes, but who should be in what group?" I asked, slightly annoyed.

Annabeth met everyone's stares. "We aren't trying to do this dramatically, stealth is our greatest weapon right now. We'd be on their home turf, and I don't want to take chances. Jason, Thalia, Nico and Hazel are all children of the Big Three. Therefore they will attract the most monsters. Do we want to band them all together and try a distraction, the most powerful fighting the most monsters? Or do we want to spread out the power, attracting less monsters, but not having a major group of defense?" I stared at her. _Only a child of Athena..._

Leo looked a little lost. "What if we had our original groups?" Seeing our confused faces he continued. "I mean, Beauty Queen, Sparky and I were originally in the same group for our first quest. Well, Piper and mine, anyway. We ended up completing our quest successfully. Hazel, Frank and Percy were another original group, but Percy isn't here right now. I would normally suggest Reyna, but having a group of all Romans wouldn't be a good idea, since you know, we're trying to be inter-mythology here. So if we put Grover with Hazel and Frank, we'd have some Camp Half-Blood in there."

"And that would leave Reyna, Thalia, Nico and me." Annabeth said, with a frown. "I don't think that's the greatest idea to put so many leaders in the same group."

"We're all leaders here, Annabeth." Jason pointed out.

"I meant more like, headstrong-has-to-be-Alpha, leaders." She explained. I shrugged in agreement.

"True." Leo consented.

I groaned. "What if we think way, way back? Annabeth, Grover and I were all traveling together at the beginning." **(No Luke, he has his own story in this story)**

"Yeah, but what about Leo and I?" Piper asked. "Our first quest was with Jason, and his first was probably with Reyna." Jason looked slightly ashamed as he wrapped Piper in a hug which she returned half-heartedly.

"Then we would pair you guys with a more powerful demigod. Preferably a Roman, to give some "inter-mythology" as Leo put it." Annabeth replied. "How about you and Leo are in the four people group? You, Leo, Hazel and Nico? We'd have a balance between the two camps."

"But that would mean that there is a full Roman and a full Greek team." Nico pointed out.

Annabeth sighed and rubbed her hands over her face. "Of course there's another problem." She muttered under her breath. "There can't be a perfect fit." Louder she said. "Look, we obviously aren't going to come to an agreement. Why don't we ask the Oracle?"

Jason turned white. "Please tell me you mean Rachel, not that shriveled up thing in the attic."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Of course I mean Rachel. The spirit of Delphi is in her now, not the mummy." She rolled her eyes again and walked out the door.

_Line Break~

We quickly traveled to Rachel's cave up in the hill by the sea. I could see her sitting there, probably waiting for us. It was kinda creepy how she did that. Once we got close enough, she met our stares with her knowing gaze of her own. She smiled sadly and waved at us.

"Rachel." Annabeth smiled and hugged her friend as we finally stood in front of her. They had grown close over the years and now were good friends.

"Hey Annabeth." Before anyone could speak, Rachel held up her hand. "I know why you guys are here. You want to go on a quest to save Perseus Jackson from Nat Klue." We were all stunned for a second or two.

"That's right." I finally broke the silence. "Can you give us a prophecy? We're running a bit late on time."

She looked at me, her green eyes piercing as ever. "You must split into three groups first. I cannot give a prophecy to so many. Besides, you were going to split into three groups anyway, right?"

Annabeth nodded. "Yes, we were. But we couldn't figure out what groups to split into."

Rachel looked the slightest bit exasperated. "Right." She sighed then closed her eyes and concentrated. Soon green mist started swirling around Rachel, giving her a mysterious air. When she opened her eyes they were a glassy green instead of her usual bright piercing green.

"There shall be three groups for this quest

None will be better than the rest.

One shall be lead by the daughter of the sky,

Her group will be all girls, not one guy.

The other will be lead by the daughter of intelligence

her group won't have easy balance

The last group shall be lead by the daughter of war

they will learn about the enemy to the core

Out of the friends, there will be only one

who has a chance at saving Poseidon's son

_Line Break~

**Percy's POV**

So, if you have a free weekend, or even week, try doing something fun. Like going to a fair, or maybe a visit to the beach. Hades, even babysitting your little cousin would be better than what I was doing at the time. What was I doing? Nothing, simply waiting. Waiting for Nat and his cronies to let me out of that stupid box. Waiting for some information about what was going on. Waiting for a chance to escape. Waiting for anything to happen. I had been stuck in that box for hours on end, if it wasn't for the fact that I was jostled every few seconds, I would've lost all sense. I hated it there, being stuck inside some small, little crate. Small spaces and I just didn't mix. I wanted to be free, to be able to run and swing my sword. I wanted to feel wind in my face and be able to move as I pleased. Instead I was shoved in this cramped position, and surrounded by darkness. Darkness that seemed to be waiting to crush me in this small place. The walls waiting to slowly move inward, smashing me into a Percy Pancake. I'm not claustrophobic at all.

I breathed in deeply. _Guess this is one of the downfalls of being a son of Poseidon, I hate being restrained and confined. Okay, time to regroup._ I thought, then winced at how much it seemed that I was talking to myself. _Okay, so I'll start by listing the facts... that'll help. _I tried to keep my sanity. _Nat Klue and at least seven other demigods are behind this. They knocked me out, I'm not sure how. Nat has blonde hair, blue eyes and a scar on his face. None of the others lifted their hoods. They are taking me to their base. I have no idea where or what their base is. I'm not sure if their working for someone or independently._ I groaned in frustration, off to a great start as always.

_Line Break~

It had been at least a few more hours before whatever I was in slowed. I had been transferred from a train before (I could tell from the sound) and I really didn't want to have to go through the process again. They had dropped me quite a few times. Thankfully, this time Nat and his cronies didn't transfer me onto another vehicle. Unfortunately they still carried me. It felt like I was being carried up a slope, but it was a little hard to tell.

"Put him right here, Sam and Cert." The icy, unmistakable voice of Nat Klue rang out. I was roughly set down. By the crunch, I suspected I most be on top of rocks, or gravel of some sort.

"He must be awake by now." A silky, smooth voice stated off to my left.

"Of course he is, the drug wore off a day or so ago." Nat replied. Then, "Bring him out."

The sound of several locks being unlocked filled the air, then the top was lifted off and a bright light shown down. I squinted for a few seconds, trying to get used to the light. Once my eyes adjusted, I was met by the sight of two pairs of eyes staring down at me. One was the icy gaze of Nat. The other person also had blue eyes, but they were a much more feminine.

"Get up." Was all that Nat said.

Slowly, I rose from the box, finally able to stretch after so long. As I looked around I was able to see that we were on top of a mountain. The mountain itself radiated ancient power. I scanned the area. There was a large pile of ruble, that once might've been a castle of some sorts and a jagged cliff leading off to no where. But that wasn't what caught my attention. The swirling mass of what looked like a contained thunderstorm did. **(Sorry, I don't really know a lot about this place so I'm just using my imagination. If I get this wrong, I am very sorry and you can imagine it whatever way you like) **I wasn't the greatest at ancient Greek mythical places, but even I knew this one. I was standing on top of Mount Othrys, Atlas's home. Technically I was on top of Mount Tam, but the danger was the same. I was looking at Atlas's burden, the sky.

I stared at the mass of grey swirling clouds for a few minutes, simply taking it in. Finally, I recovered my wits. I turned towards Nat and the others who had silently moved behind me, making a semi-circle around me. "You said that your companions would introduce themselves when we got to the base, correct Nat?" I asked looking at him dead in the eyes.

He chuckled, a dark evil sound. "Yes I did, and I do stand by my words." He gestured for the others to continue for him.

The one on the far left stepped forward. She drew back her hood to reveal a beautiful face. She was obviously Asian, her hair was black and her skin was a golden mix. Her eyes were a dark brown and were slanted the slightest bit, giving her an air of ancient power. All in all, she was most likely a daughter of Aphrodite. "My name is Anna Red." Her voice was the silky one I had heard before. She stepped back, but left her hood down.

The person next to her stepped forward. She lifted her hood and again I was stunned by her sheer beauty. She had a shiny blond hair and the feminine blue eyes I had looked into when the lid of my box was first opened. **(The description of Aura's original character differs. I put this down to her mother's powers. If your trying to guess, don't go by looks for Aura)** "My name is Aura Nelia." Judging from looks alone, I could tell that both Anna and Aura were both daughters of Aphrodite.

The person to Aura's right stepped up then. He flicked his hood off showing his elf-like face. He was grinning with a mischievous look in his blue eyes. His brown hair was curly and he was tall and lanky. " Name's Los Ira. Nd just as an FYI, Los is the first name, Ira is the last name. Just in case you got confused." He winked and laughed at my bewildered expression.

Next to step up was another boy. He looked a bit on the older side and was well muscled. He shoved his hood back revealing brown eyes and black hair along with a strong, stern face. "Roz Shri." Was all he said before stepping back.

A huge boy stepped forward after Roz. He obviously had muscle. "My name is Sam Kea." His face was strong like Roz's, with brown hair and brown eyes. He had a very nondescript look to him, making your eyes slide right over him. **(Don't actually know what he looks like)**

The next person to step up was also a boy. _I guess Annabeth was right after all. _I thought back to the times we'd argue over which gender was smarter. _Girls are smarter than guys. _**(Meaning that Percy thought that whoever was on this team wasn't very wise for pinking to be on this side. It's sorta an insult in a Seaweed Brain way... sorry, that was hard to understand.) ** I focused back to the boy who had just taken his hood off. I was a little startled at this one. He looked about my age if not a little younger, but he had an eyepatch covering his left eye. His hair was black and his other eye was brown. "My name is Mak Haten."

There were only two left after him. The first to go was a slim boy with a bow slung over his back. **(Again, the books never revealed what he looks like) **He stepped up smoothly. "My name is Cert Ele." His hair was a golden blond and he was obviously tan. He had sky blue eyes and a smile that would've looked friendly if his eyes weren't glaring.

THe last one to step up was a huge burly guy. He probably had a million swords hidden in his cloak but I only saw the tip of one sword. A son of Ares through and through. **(He isn't mentioned very much in the books. I didn't know his last name so I took the first name of a different guy in the same cabin who was also mentioned a little) **He smirked at me. "Ramsn Kar, punk. Don't forget it."

Nat finally stepped back up. "Okay, now that we have that out of the way, let's get down to business." He smiled coldly in my direction.

I swallowed my fear. "And what exactly do you mean by that?" I asked, letting defiance color my voice.

His smile widened the slightest bit. "I thought you'd never ask." Instead of telling me, he merely nodded in the direction of Atlas's burden. I was shoved roughly towards the "sky" by Ramsn.

"That way, punk." Ramsn sneered. I rolled my eyes, _Definitely Ares._

Slowly I walked up the hill towards the sky. Once I got to the crest I saw that Atlas was no longer under the burden. Instead someone who I cared about immensely for was stuck struggling to hold up the sky. I started running before I even fully registered it. "MOM!"

**Sorry that it's sorta following the Titan's Curse plot. I didn't really think it through, but I'll try to make it a bit different than Rick Riordan's. I also apologize for the crappy prophecy, I have learned how hard those things are to make. One last apology, sorry about how many "new" characters I put in here. I'll try to describe and define them better in the next few chapters. Again, I'm really sorry about... everything! Review if you'd like, but I wouldn't really blame you if you didn't for this chapter. (It was pretty bad and I'm not even gonna try to pretend it wasn't) Okay, well hopefully the next chapter will be at least a little better than this one! Take it easy! U got 2 get down 2 get up**


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